


I Survived Tartarus (And All I Got Was This Shitty T-shirt)

by SpiritsFlame



Series: Surviving Your Trip(s) To The Unerworld [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Eventual Threesome, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Obliviousness, Pining, everyone is kind of dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-11
Updated: 2013-12-02
Packaged: 2018-01-01 03:52:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 46,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1040029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritsFlame/pseuds/SpiritsFlame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy is determined to be a better friend to Nico- whether Nico wants him to be or not. With Annabeth at his side, it sometimes feels more like a fight against Nico than for him, but Percy is determined to win. </p><p>And maybe also survive this latest crisis. It's bad enough to have to fight sea monsters and rogue Gods, but sorting out his social life might be more than he can handle. Eventual Percy/Annabeth/Nico.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. All This Talking (And Nothing Gets Said)

Most days, Percy isn’t sure what he would do without Annabeth. He can’t imagine life as a demi-god without her, as constant to him as the familiar weight of Riptide in his hand. It works in simple ways, in ways that they joke about, about her being his common sense, about him being her sense of humor. 

But, in the quiet moments, when they can both be serious, it goes deeper than that. They went through hell together, and no other connection on earth could replace that. Percy knows, bone-deep and certain, that he would have died in Tartarus without Annabeth. And not just because of all the times she physically saved his life. It went deeper than that, to how she had kept him going, kept him fighting. Without her, he might have been tempted to lie down and never get up, until Tartarus swallowed him whole.

And now, now that Gaia sleeps again, now that Percy bears a scar from his temple to below his right eye, and Annabeth may never walk the same, he still needs her. On the nights when he wakes up with a scream building in his throat, Annabeth is there to sooth him to sleep. At times when Annabeth’s gaze goes cold and still, when he knows she is thinking of Tartarus, Percy is there to take her hand and gentle her through it. She is the only person he knows who could understand what he had seen, what he still felt.

Sometimes thoughts come slow to Percy, but they come deep. This one thought comes upon him in waves like the ocean, almost breaking over and over before he can fully grasp them, leaving him with the need to reach out to someone and not knowing who. He dreams of the dark of Tartarus, stretching out his hand towards a receding back and not knowing what name to call.

When the thought finally crashes over his head, Annabeth is curled sweetly against him, her head on his chest and her arms around him. 

Nico doesn’t have an Annabeth.

Nico doesn’t have anyone to gentle him through the nightmares that Tartarus leaves behind, no one to to calm the shakes that still come, no one on earth or beyond who could possibly understand. 

Percy feels shame welling up in his throat, clogging his breath. He had sworn in Tartarus that he would be a better friend to the people he overlooked, that he would be a better friend to Nico in particular. Nico, who had probably saved his life in Tartarus for no other reason than that Nico was a better person than Percy was. Nico, who Percy had let slip away into the shadows after the final battle once again.

Annabeth stirred against his side, attuned to his moods as she always seemed to be. Percy nudges her side lightly with his elbow and she blinks awake, peering at him.

“Percy?” she asks, her voice still muddled with sleep.

“Annabeth,” Percy murmers, “Annabeth, I’ve been a terrible friend.” It’s kind of confession he wouldn’t be able to say to anyone else. For someone whose fatal flaw is supposed to be his tendency to do anything for his friends, he’s pretty terrible at anything that doesn’t involve dying for someone.

Annabeth frowns up at him, her brow furrowed in confusion. It’s a rare sight, even more rare for Percy, who always feels like Annabeth thinks in leaps and bounds to his small hops.

“To whom?” She doesn’t contradict him, doesn’t argue. It’s one of the things that he loves about her the most. She is so smart, but she’s always willing to let him talk his ideas through before telling him why he’s wrong.

Percy clenches his hand around her waist, taking comfort in the warm weight of her. “Do you remember, when we,” he hesitates. He doesn’t want to talk about Tartarus, not in this bed that they share. “When we met Bob,” he settles on. He can feel her nod against his chest, but he doesn’t look down at her.

It’s still dark outside, but he can see the drops of a fresh rain on the window pain. He watches a single drop run down to the outside sill before he continues. “He told us how Nico came to talk to him, how Nico told him how great we were.”

“How great you were,” Annabeth corrects. 

Percy frowns slightly. “Yeah.”

Annabeth nudges him when he falls silent again. “What’s your point, seaweed brain?”

He digs his fingers deep into her side to feel her twitch away, smiling into her hair. None of the others believe him when he tells them that Annabeth is ticklish. “Why would he do that for me? Why would he lead the other to the Doors, just because I asked him to? What have I ever done to deserve his friendship.”

Annabeth is silent for a long moment, but Percy lets her think. “You seem to think of friendship as something that you need to earn. But it doesn’t work that way. You do things for others that they probably don’t deserve, and you don’t think twice about it.”

Percy glances down to meet her grey eyes. “I guess,” he says hesitantly. “But I don’t think I’ve been a good friend to Nico. We should have been helping him after the war ended. We’re the only ones who can, I think.”

Annabeth thinks about it for a moment. “Then we’ll try and help him. But Percy, you have to remember. Nico might not want our help.”

“I have to try,” Percy insists stubbornly.

“Then try,” Annabeth replies simply. “In the morning.”

As he drifts back off to sleep, counting on Annabeth’s presence to hold the nightmares away, Percy resolves to do just that.

\--

As it turns out, Nico does not want his help. As a matter of fact, Nico rather emphatically does not want his help.Or his friendship. Or, as far as Percy can tell, anything to do with him at all.

“I’m just trying to talk to you!” Percy yells into the shadows where Nico had disappeared. 

Dejected, Percy flops down onto the sand, flinging his arms out to his side.

“Boy troubles, Jackson?” 

Percy looks up, squinting in the bright sunlight, to see Jason and Piper, hand in hand. Jason grins down at him. 

“Ha fucking Ha,” Percy replies, raising a hand to block the sunlight. Jason drops down to sit beside him, tugging Piper down beside him. 

“Was that Nico I saw?” Piper asks guilelessly.

“Yes,” Percy replies, grumpy.

“Where’s he headed to?”

“Probably far away from me.” 

Piper’s mouth forms a perfect O of understanding, and she doesn’t press further.

The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for Jason. “What did you do to piss him off?”

“Well, I started by saying hello,” Percy snaps, irritated.

Piper inches closer, moving so that arm just touches his. There’s something distinctly comforting about her presence, an undefinable something that gets stronger as she gets more comfortable with herself and her powers.

“It’s not your fault, Percy. Nico can just be a little,” she hesitates. “prickly sometimes.”

Percy snorts. “He hates me, is what you mean.”

“Trust me on this, Jackson, he doesn’t hate you.” Jason replies, voice heavy with irony. 

“Could have fooled me.”

“He just doesn’t know what to do with other people talking to him,” Jason says.

Percy stands. “Look, I know you two are buddies and everything, but maybe you don’t know him as well as you think. Me and Nico, we’ve got some history. And it sucks. And now, I’m trying to make amends.” He pushes his hands through his hair, frustrated. “And Nico, gods, he seems like he’s getting worse and I want to help. Annabeth and me, I think we could help him! We know what it was like down there, but he just won’t let us. And it sucks!” He pounds a fist into his palm and a jet of water shoots out of the ocean, straight up before falling back with a splash. The few people out in canoes shriek in dismay.

“It’s ok, Percy,” Piper says soothingly. “Just calm down.” He can hear the traces of charmspeak in her voice, but that doesn’t stop it from working. He feels his muscles loosen, feels the terrible, impotent anger drain away like the sea. 

He gets angrier more now, ever since Tartarus. It awoke parts of him he never wants to think of, and sometimes it feels like his temper is never far away. He can’t even imagine how Nico must feel.

Jason approaches tentatively, like Percy is some wild thing. Like he think that maybe Percy is going to Hulk out on him if he moves too quickly. It makes Percy feel ashamed.

“I think you’re right, about Nico.” Jason puts a hand on Percy’s arm. His hand is still scarred from when he grabbed Leo during the battle, but his grip is strong. “Not about the whole, him hating you thing. That’s stupid. But I think he needs you.”

“I think he needs Annabeth too,” Piper adds, a grin quirking the corner of her mouth. Jason rolls his eyes.

“Yeah. He needs you both, that poor kid has more than enough issues that it probably would take the two of you to help anyway. So, I guess what I’m saying is- don’t give up.”

Percy shrugs, but doesn’t try to dislodge Jason’s grip. “I’m doing what I can.”

“Try talking to Hazel,” Piper offers. “She usually has a way to talk to him, even when the rest of us don’t.”

“Yeah, that’s a fantastic idea,” Percy mutters, “go behind his back to chat up his sister.”

Piper crosses her arms over her chest. “You know as well as I do that Hazel wouldn’t tell you anything Nico wouldn’t want you to know. Stop feeling sorry for yourself.”

Percy shoots a surprised look at Jason. No matter how much Piper proves how tough she is, it always takes him by surprise when she takes charge like that. Jason just smirks at him.

\--

The thing is, Percy can’t just head off to New Rome whenever he would like. The tunnel that Annabeth and Cabin Nine are working to build is still in progress. Annabeth has been talking about using the same theories of the Maze to minimize the difference, but they haven’t gotten much further than an abstract concept. As it stands now, Nico, and whomever is in his good graces at any particular time, is the only one who can travel easily between camps.

Nor can Hazel just leave New Rome. Frank has taken to his new position well, and he and Hazel have been busy training the new recruits. 

In the end, Percy has to rely on sending an Iris-Message to her. 

“I don’t know, Percy,” Hazel says slowly, biting her lip like she does when she’s nervous.

“He’s there, isn’t he?”

Hazel sighs. “Officially. No.”

“And unofficially?”

“He asked me not to say anything.”

Percy fights the urge to put his head in his hands. This is starting to feel hopeless. How do you talk to someone who can just melt away with a thought?

“Just, I’m worried about him. I don’t think I’ve seen him eat once since the war ended, and I know I haven’t seen him sleep.”

Hazel isn’t meeting his eyes, and he knows that she agrees. 

“Hazel, he talks to you. He listens to you. If you could just get him to come back to Camp Half-blood, get him to talk to us.”

“I’m not sure if he does listen to me. Talks to me, sure. But he doesn’t seem to think he needs anyone else.”

“He’s wrong.”

“I know that!” Hazel snaps. “But good luck convincing him that.”

“What if you don’t mention me? What if you just tell him that Annabeth wants to talk to him. I think he likes her, I think he might listen.”

Hazel bites her lip again, thinking. “If we don’t say we want to help him. If we say that he’s helping you, he might do it. Maybe.”

Percy grins at her. “I can work with a maybe.”

Hazel sighs. “I’ll talk to him. No promises though.”

“That’s all I ask.”

Hazel hesitates. “Percy, we’re going on a quest tomorrow.”

“We?”

“Frank, Nico and I. You know it’s been hard for Frank and I to make patrols, without a third person.”

“You know, you’re allowed to go on patrol with people who weren’t on the Argo II.”

“Yeah, but it gets complicated. The younger kids are in awe of Frank, and you know how the Romans are about Pluto.”

Percy makes a face. Yeah, he remembers the prejudices of New Rome just fine. “You’re always welcome here, you know that. It would probably help, actually, if Nico wasn’t all alone in that creepy house we built for him.”

“It would probably have helped more if you had built it more like a cabin than a mausoleum,” Hazel retorts. “I don’t think that I would want to stay in there alone either.”

“Hazel,” a voice calls from Hazels’ end of the message, “who are you speaking too?”

“No one!” Hazel stands quickly, turning her back on Percy and subtly swiping her hand through the mist, breaking the connection.

Percy sighs, settling back in his chair. It’s still too quiet in the Poseidon cabin, too big and too empty. He can hear the calls and shouts of others outside, so he stands, and stretches. The cabin is cleaner than it used to be in the past. Annabeth sleeps here more often than she doesn’t lately, and Chiron turns a blind eye to it.

Percy is grateful. It makes it easier to sleep, makes him less likely to wake up gasping in the night. Mr. D probably would have protested, but his punishment had been lifted after his part in the war against Gaia.

Percy drops down onto his bed, taking comfort in the sigh of Annabeth’s clothes stored neatly next to his own haphazard jumble of shirts and jeans. 

There was a sudden commotion from outside that made Percy turn his head, then one of the younger campers stuck their head in through his door. “Percy? There’s a bit of an issue down at the volleyball court, would you mind coming down?”

Percy sighed, then smiled at the kid. “Yeah, I’ll be right over.”

\--

“Maybe we should go on a quest ourselves,” Percy says, tugging absently on the end of Annabeth’s ponytail.

“Yes, because things are so quiet here,” Annabeth replies without taking her eyes off the training field. “Keep your sword up, Mark!”

Mark makes the fatal error of looking over at her rather than obeying and gets a padded sword to the chest for his efforts.

“Let’s let Clarisse train the babies,” Percy protests. “She gets all the fun!”

“Clarisse made three kids cry last time she ran the exercises.”

“That’s no reason to let her off easy.”

Annabeth nudges him in the side. “We can talk about it when Jason gets back from his patrol.”

“He left yesterday, Annabeth!” 

The patrols were something they had set up after they had put Gaea back to sleep. With most of the monsters released by the Doors still running free, it had been foolish to only let out demigods when a prophecy called for them. Demigods from both Camps were going out in threes almost weekly, patrolling all over America looking for trouble spots and fighting the monsters they found.

“And we don’t have a third anyway, so it’s a moot point.”

“Moot,” Percy repeats after her, drawing the word out, rolling it around in his mouth. She pushes him harder this time. He sways into it to placate her, than swings an arm around her shoulder. She shrugs him off and tells one of the Apollo kids to adjust his feet.

“How about you and I give them a practical demonstration?” Percy asks, gently teasing. Annabeth tosses her head and give him a look. 

“You think that you can take me, seaweed brain?” Annabeth asks archly.

“I’m sure of it,” Percy replies, grinning broadly. 

“You’re on.”

Percy shoos the two kids off the sparring field, grabbing Riptide from his pocket and uncapping it. Annabeth squares off against him, her bone blade already in her hand. “Get ready to eat dirt,” she taunts.

Percy lunges forward rather than reply, hoping to catch her off guard. He should have known better. Annabeth catches his thrust on the flat of her blade and tries to sweep his legs out from under him. Percy leaps over her outstretched foot, breaking away.

“You’ll have to be faster than that,” he taunts. Annabeth doesn’t answer, carefully tracking his motions with her eyes. They know each other too well by this point- he knows the way she moved as well as he knows himself, and she knows him at least as well.

Annabeth feints to the left, but Percy is already anticipating the thrust to his right. He dodges under and brings it into a roll, hoping to come up behind her, but she’s already moved.

They’re too well-matched for a quick match. Her agility against his strength, her size against his speed. If they were in the water, it would be different, but that’s not what this fight is for. Percy won’t always have an ocean at his back, just like Annabeth won’t always have an opponent she can predict like she can predict Percy.

They’re starting to draw a crowd, Percy can sense them on the edge of his awareness. He knows better than to look away from Annabeth though. Her grey eyes are cool on him, and he can read them better than he can read her posture. Her eyes flick left, just before she goes right. Another feint. He uses Riptide like a shield, pushing her back. 

Annabeth falters, and he doesn’t let her break away, pushing her back. “Concede?” he asks. Annabeth’s foot catches him in the side and he falls back, winded. Annabeth dances out of reach.

“You wish!” she calls, teasing. Percy makes a face, putting his hand to his side. He can hear cheers from the crowd.

Well, fine, if that’s how they’re going to play it. Percy bends his knees, settling into the half-crouch waiting position he had learned at Camp Jupiter. Annabeth frowns at him, puzzled. Waiting has never been his strong suit. For a long moment, they just watch each other. 

Then Annabeth seems to decide something, and she takes a running leap at him, coming towards him from above. She was expecting him to stand his ground- the Roman way, the way his posture implies. He rolls instead, letting her land in his empty space. Riptide flashes through the air in a blur, catching her bone blade above the hilt. Percy twists his sword and hers goes flying, torn from her grip. 

Annabeth meets his gaze, startled. He grins at her, impish and amused. It’s not often he can surprise her. He kicks her blade further away, so she’s have to go through him for it. Then something catches his eyes in the crowd, over her shoulder. A shadow, or something like it, something dark that draws his attention. 

Then all the breath has been thrust from his lungs. Annabeth’s barrels into him like a linebacker, her shoulder to his stomach. Before Percy is quite sure what’s happening, he’s going over her shoulder, landing winded in the sand. 

Annabeth kneels over him, her knees on either side of his hips. She braces her arms on each side of his face, leaning forward. Her golden pony-tail spills over one shoulder, blocking his vision on that side.

“I win,” she whispers, grinning. 

Percy shrugs, matching her grin. “I guess you do.”

Annabeth gives him a quick kiss, just a peck, before she stands. The crowd cheers as she offers a hand down to help him up. 

Percy scans the group of demigods for what had distracted him. It was something important, he was sure. He might be ADHD, but he didn’t usually get distracted in the middle of a fight like that. Not even when it was just a mock-battle.

His eyes catch dark brown ones before Nico looks away, melting back into the crowd. Percy tries to call after him, but Nico doesn’t look back.

\--

Percy finds Nico sitting on the steps of Cabin 13, feet kicked out and hands behind his head. He cracks an eye open when Percy approaches, unmistakably tense.

“You’re back,” Percy says, taking a seat beside him. Nico shifts slightly, putting more distance between them. Percy pretends not to notice.

“Hazel wanted me to come talk to you,” Nico says. His voice is weirdly hoarse.

Percy waits to see if he will say more, but he doesn’t. “I talked to her,” Percy says carefully. “We miss you. I know Annabeth has been wanting to see you.”

Nico goes rigid, and Percy curses himself for whatever he’d said to upset him. 

“Nico?” Percy asks tentatively. 

“I’m not here to catch up,” Nico says brusquely. “I need some help, and Hazel insisted I come here.” He stops and swallows. “Hazel was hurt on our last patrol.”

Percy sits up straighter. “Is she-”

“She’ll be ok. But her arm is broken in two places, and she hurt her leg. Frank is looking after her.”

“Is there anything I can do?” 

Nico shrugs, sitting up at last. When he does, Percy can see that his black shirt is wet under his jacket. He reaches out, fitting his hand against Nico’s waist. Nico gasps, twisting away. Percy’s hand comes away, red with blood.

“Nico, you idiot!” Percy snaps. “Did you come straight here?”

“I told you, I need your help.” Nico is gritting his teeth, and Percy wants to shake some sense in this stupid, stubborn boy.

“Healing first, then I’ll do whatever you want. Promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Nico says, almost angry. But he lets Percy pull him up. “I can walk on my own.” He tugs his arm out of Percy’s grasp and sways on his feet, almost falling.

Percy rolls his eyes. “Sure you can, big guy.” He doesn’t give Nico a chance to protest, swinging Nico’s arm over his shoulder and wrapping one arm around his waist. Nico tries to pull free, but Percy just grips him tighter. 

“Let go of me!” Nico protests, feebly.

“Dude!” Percy says as Nico’s elbow catches him in the ribs. “I’m trying to help you!”

Nico makes a few more incoherent grumbling noises that Percy ignores. When he glances at Nico, the boy’s face is red, splotches of color standing out against his pale skin. 

“You ok?” Percy asks, then feels like an idiot. Of course Nico isn’t ok. He’s bleeding into Percy’s hands. 

Nico tries to pull free in response, and Percy doesn’t let him. “I’m just peachy,” Nico growls, and Percy gives him what he hopes is an encouraging smile. Nico looks away.

Some of the other campers stop what they’re doing to stare at them, making their way down the path like they’re competing in a three-legged race. Percy stares them down until they look away, continueing on their ways.

When the pass the Apollo cabin, Percy catches Connor’s eyes and jerks his head for the boy to follow. Connor quickly passes his guitar over to one of the other Apollo kids and ducks into his cabin. He catches up to them quickly, backpack slung over one shoulder. He comes up on Nico’s other side, looking concerned.

“Where are we taking him?” he asks. He makes a move like he’s going to take Nico’s other arm, but something in Nico’s face persuades them that this is a bad idea. 

“My cabin. It’s closer than the big house, and less crowded.”

“I don’t want-” Nico begins.

“Shut up. Only people not bleeding get a choice.”

“Well, that doesn’t seem fair,” Nico grumbles, but Percy is pretty sure he sees a hint of amusement in Nico’s dark eyes. He’ll take it.

Nico nearly balks again when they take him through the archway of Cabin 3, and then they have to literally push him onto Percy’s bed. “I’ll get blood on your sheets.”

“It’s not the first time,” Percy shrugs. Connor and Nico both give him appalled looks. Percy makes a face. “Maybe you’re not the only person who goes to your cabin before getting healed.”

Nico makes an odd, creaking sound that it takes Percy a moment to identify as a laugh. Percy gives him a playful nudge, sticking his tongue out at him. Nico holds his eyes for a rare moment, before he breaks away with a gasp as Connor lifts up his t-shirt to expose the cut. The shirt sticks to the blood and has to be peeled away slowly. Nico’s hand clenches into a fist. Finally, the shirt comes free to reveal a bloody slash almost three inches long, still oozing blood sluggishly.

“Gods, Nico,” Percy hisses in sympathy. 

Nico gives him a pained look. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Bullshit,” Percy replies, and Nico makes that creaking laugh noise again. 

“Here, I think I have some…” Connor trails off, rummaging in the pocket of his jeans. He comes out with a few drachmas, a broken off arrow head of celestial bronze and a square of slightly linty ambrosia. 

“Wow,” Nico says. “Thanks.”

“Eat the ambrosia, Nico.” Percy commands. Nico gives him a dirty look, but he sulkily picks the worst of the lint off of the ambrosia and puts it in his mouth. The pain on his face immediately eases. 

“Arms up,” Connor orders briskly, pulling a roll of gauze out of his backpack.

Nico gives him a dirty look. “You have gauze, but you don’t have any ambrosia that doesn’t have lint on it?”

“That’s the life, man,” Connor replies, unrepentant. “Percy, help me get his shirt off.”

“What?” Nico squaks. “No!” He flails his arm out, trying to get away. His shirt, rucked up to under his elbows, gets caught under his arms and he nearly falls over. Connor steadies him with patient hands. 

Percy doesn’t give Nico another chance to protest. He steps forward quickly and grips the bottom of Nico’s shirt. His hand catches on wet blood and he grimaces. “Arms up,” he commands, tugging. Face beet red, Nico obeys. Carefully, Percy pulls the shirt over Nico’s head.

Nico’s head emerges from the neck, red, rumpled and refusing to meet Percy’s eyes. 

Percy reaches out, wanting to straighten Nico’s hair, since Nico seems so upset at having to get messed up in front of him, but Nico jerks away like Percy’s touch was poison. 

“Back off, Jackson.” Nico snarls. Percy pulls back quickly, unsure how he messed up this time. He feels like that around Nico a lot, lately.

Connor’s eyebrows are raised almost into his hairline, but he doesn’t comment as he carefully wraps the gauze around Nico’s midriff. Percy notices with some resentment that Nico doesn’t seem to mind Connor touching him.

“Be careful with that,” Connor says, after a long moment of awkward silence. Nico is glaring down at the bedspread, not looking at Percy or anything else in the cabin. Percy is just staring at Nico, hoping that intense eye contact will make him magically able to understand how Nico’s mind works. It might have worked better if Nico would meet his eyes, but Percy suspects not.

Connor expertly tucks the loose ends of the gause away and stands. Percy is momentarily surprised by how tall he’s gotten. They’ve all grown up since those first few summers, and they’ve all faced battle. “Don’t strain yourself,” Connor says sternly. Nico snorts. “I’m serious. No messing about with your sword for at least three days. I don’t want that wound to open up again.”

Nico makes a face, but Connor is turning away and doesn’t notice. Percy does though, and he makes a face back. 

“Thanks, man,” Percy says to Connor, clasping him on the back. “I’ll look out for him.”

“You will not!” Nico says indignantly, grabbing for his shirt.

“Shut up, Nico,” Percy says calmly, pulling Nico’s shirt out of Nico’s hands. “And you’re not putting this back on. Gods.” He strides over to where his own shirts are shoved together next to Annabeth’s carefully folded ones. He pulls one of his Camp Half-blood shirts out from the top of the pile, gives it a cautious sniff and decides that it’s good enough. “Wear this.”

Nico is glaring at him when Percy turns back, his face gone splotchy with color again. Percy is starting to be a bit concerned about him. He wants to check him for a fever, the way that his mom always did for him. He thinks that Nico might actually take his hand off if he tries though.

“I don’t want to-”

“Then walk around camp shirtless, see if I care,” Percy snaps, nearing the end of his patience. “I bet the nymphs would like that.” He throws his shirt at Nico and leaves the cabin. He gets about five feet up the path before he turns back. He’s still too frustrated with Nico and his cagey behavior to go back in though, so he drops down onto the steps, waiting. 

After almost ten minutes, Nico slinks down next to him. They sit in silence for a long minute, neither of them looking at the other. Two campers run by, one of the Hectate kids chasing a son of Hermes.

“Thank you,” Nico says, so quietly that Percy can barely hear him. Percy thinks about asking him to repeat himself, but that would be cruel.

Instead, he punches Nico lightly in the shoulder. “Don’t mention it.” He looks Nico up and down. The bright orange shirt makes Nico look pale and sickly. Percy can’t even remember the last time he saw Nico wearing anything but black. It suits him, somehow. It makes him look like one of their own, not like the outsider kid of Hades. Percy likes it.

“You look good in my shirt,” he says playfully. 

Nico punches him in the shoulder. Hard. It hurts.

\--

Percy freaks out a little when Frank’s face appears in his bathtub.

Or, more specifically, when it appears, floating in the mist above the water in the bathing room he’s using. Percy is starting to think that Fleecey, Iris’ overly enthusiastic assistant, has a bit of a crush on him. Iris messages addressed to him never seem to come in the bowl of water he keeps in the cabin for this very purpose. Instead, they have been arriving more and more in awkward situations, like right now.

Frank makes a distressed sound and covers his eyes quickly, shouting apologies. Percy is weirdly reassured by this. Frank had changed while Percy was in Tartarus, and it was nice to see that there was still some of the old, easily flustered Frank in there somewhere.

Percy has to shout to get through to Frank that he’s fine, it’s all fine, just tell him what the problem is.

Frank hesitantly peeks through his fingers, and seems relieved that he can’t see more than Percy’s upper torso and head. 

“What’s up, dude?” Percy asks, amused.

Frank lowers his hands, face still red. “Is Nico there?”

“Um, in my bath?” 

“No! With you. But not right now! At Camp! Is Nico at Camp Half-blood?”

“Yeah. He doesn’t seem happy about it, but he’s resting now. He pretty much collapsed after we got him healed.”

Frank breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank Gods. He disappeared after he got us back to New Rome, and we weren’t sure where he would have gone. He’s ok, right?”

Percy makes a face. “He’s not dying. But he had a nasty cut, and as far as I can tell, he wasn’t planning to tell anyone about it.”

Franks sighs gustily. “At least you found him. Hazel was worried that he’d gone and passed out halfway in the woods somewhere, or worse- gone back to the Underworld.”

“How is Hazel?” Percy asks, concerned. 

“She’s not bad. Mostly, she’s just mad at having to stay put. But even for a demi-god, broken bones take awhile to heal. She’s more worried about the fact that the stupid monster is still wreaking havoc on the coast.”

“What happened, anyway? I would have though, between you, Hazel and Nico, you could have taken anything.”

Frank’s face does this weird thing where he looks pleased at the compliment, while simultaneously looking irritated at that fact that they hadn’t defeated it. “It was a sea monster. Hazel was doing a pretty job of keeping up with it, you know how Arion can run on the water. But it caught her with it’s tail. I was able to get her out of there, but I think one of the spines had gotten Nico. We weren’t even entirely sure he’d been hurt. Hazel practically ordered him to go get you, but we weren’t sure if he would actually do it.”

Percy frowns. “He didn’t say anything about that.”

“Maybe he was going to ask later,” Frank shrugs. “We both know that you’re going to be needed to defeat a sea monster like that.”

Percy sits up straighter, the water sloshing around his waist. “Oh, yeah! You’re right.”

Frank looks flustered. “Ok, yeah. So, I’m going to go now. Nico’s fine, Hazel’s fine, we’re all fine. You go, um, finish up. I’ll talk to you later.” He slashes his hand through the water vapor and his face wavers, then dissolves. 

When the mist had faded completely, Percy finds an organic, gluten-free health bar floating in his bath water. He glances around to make sure that Fleecy isn’t watching him anywhere. He doesn’t see her, but he finishes up as quickly as possible.

When he’s done, Percy hoists himself out of the bath. It was pretty close to the middle of the night, the only time he could be guaranteed that the bathhouse would be empty. 

Nico had fallen asleep on Percy’s bed when Percy had refused to let him go back to the dark tomb that was the Hades cabin. 

Sighing, Percy dries himself with quick flicks of his fingers, the water sluicing off him like oil. In less than a minute, he’s dry again. He pulls his jeans and t-shirt on and heads back to Cabin 3.

He’s relieved to see that Nico is still asleep, curled up in the middle of Percy’s bed like a cat. He looks too small and thin, pale against the blue sheets. Percy resolves to get Nico to spend more time in the world of the living. Somehow. 

Nico is on top of the blankets, even though the night is cold. Sighing softly, Percy grabs the spare blue fleece he keeps at the bottom of his bed for winter weather and spreads it gently over Nico. Nico starts awake, one hand going to his sword, his eyes half-wild.

Percy drops to his knees quickly, so that he doesn’t loom over Nico. “Shhhh, shh. It’s ok,” he whispers, softly. “You’re safe, it’s ok.” He’s said the same to Annabeth, had her say the same to him. It doesn’t always help, but sometimes it’s enough.

“Percy?” Nico asks, startled and still blurry with sleep. 

“Yeah, it’s me, buddy. Go back to sleep.” 

Nico gives a small smile, devastatingly sweet and nothing like Percy has ever seen from him in his waking hours. “Will you still be here?”

Percy feels his heart flip over, sympathy and pain for Nico, who has no one in the world he can trust, but who wants so badly to trust someone. 

“Yeah.” He puts his hand on Nico’s arm, slowly and gently. “Yeah, of course I will.”

“Good,” Nic says, and his head drops back down onto the pillow. His eyelashes make a dark sweep on his pale cheeks. Percy smiles down at him, then gently pulls his arm free. Nico makes a noise in his sleep, brows furrowing. He looks to be on the verge of waking up again.

Carefully, Percy places his arm back and Nico settles. Percy sighs. He knows what it’s like to need physical contact, it’s part of why Annabeth sleeps with him more nights than not. He’s a little relieved that she’d already decided to spend this night back at Cabin Six. She’s walked into his cabin to see Nico asleep on his bed and done a neat about-turn back out.

Percy (very briefly) considers scooting in next to Nico, but he doesn’t fancy the idea of waking up to Stygian Iron to the throat, so he curls up beside the bed, propping his free arm on the side the bed and leaning his head on it.

He falls asleep that way, his hand resting on Nico’s arm over the blue fleece blanket.

\--

Percy wakes before Nico, which surprises him. What surprises him more is the fact that there is daylight is already coming through the curtains behind the ominous statue of Poseidon on the back, gilting the statue briefly with a crown of gold.

He shifts, his arms and legs creaky from the odd position. He hasn’t moved much from how he fell asleep, though Nico has. The boy has moved closer to the edge of the bed, closer to Percy. Percy feels a bit resentful that the only time that Nico can be close to him is while practically unconscious.

Nico is also almost entirely on top of Percy’s left arm, Percy’s hand gripped tight in his own. Percu tugs gently, but even asleep, Nico has a strong grip. Percy nudge his shoulder and, just like the night before, Nico’s eyes fly awake at the light touch. 

Nico’s hand goes to his hip like he’s reaching for a sword, but Percy had moved it to the floor when Nico had fallen asleep the first time. 

“It’s just me, Nico,” Percy says, his voice calm and even.

“Percy?” Nico says, and Percy gives him a small smile. It kind of reminds him of mornings waking up beside Annabeth. Except with a bit more panicking. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s my room?” Percy says, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

“What?” Nico exclaims.

“Can I have my hand back?” Percy asks, giving his arm another tug.

“Oh my gods,” Nico says and practically throws Percy’s hand back at him. The entire arm is numb. Percy shakes it out carefully, feeling the start of pins and needles.

“What am I, is this your bed?” Nico sounds appalled. He scurries away from Percy as quickly as he can. 

“Well, there aren’t any other Poseidon campers, so, yeah.”

“Oh my gods,” Nico says again, faintly. He draws his knees up to his chest and rakes both hands through his hair. He looks awful.

Percy stands, feeling awkward and uncertain. “Um. Are you feeling better?”

“No!” Nico yells, and holds out his hands like he’s preemptively pushing Percy aways.

“No?” Percy repeats, all tentativeness vanishing. “What’s wrong?” He pushes Nico’s hands aside and grips the edges of the orange shirt Nico wears. 

“What are you doing?” Nico demands, voice cracking. 

“I’m checking on your wound, hold still.”

“It’s fine, go away!”

It turns into a mini-scramble, where Nico tries to push Percy away while touching him as little as possible, and Percy tries to see if Nico’s bleeding through the bandages without jostling his wounds. 

“Just, get off of me!” Nico finally yells, pushing hard on Percy’s chest.

Percy falls back, surprised. It gives Nico enough room to stand. “I’m just trying to help you!” Percy says indignantly.

“I don’t want your help! I don’t need help from anyone!” Nico yells. His hands are clenched into fists at his side, and Percy is a little worried that he might start to cry. He gets to his feet and reaches out, not sure what he’s going to do but needing to do something. Nico pushes his away hard enough that he almost fall again, and runs out.

Percy drops down onto his bed and puts his head in his hands. “Fuck.”

He hears light footsteps on the steps of the cabin and looks up quickly, hoping that it’s Nico coming back. It’s Annabeth, and she’s wearing that expression she makes when he’s done something stupid, but she isn’t entirely sure what it is. 

“I saw Nico heading down the path,” she says, sitting down beside him. “What did you do to him?”

Percy bends to put his head on her shoulder. “Hell if I know. Everything I do seems to be wrong.”

Annabeth reaches up to gently run her fingers through his hair. “At least you’re trying. It’s better than nothing.”

Percy sighs. “That’s debatable. Maybe I should ask Jason for tips. He doesn’t seem to need any help.” Even he can hear the bitterness in his own tone. Annabeth takes her hand away.

“Don’t be jealous. It doesn’t suit you.”

“I’m not jealous!” Percy snaps.

“You are. You’re upset because you liked being Nico’s go-to-guy, and now he has Jason. And that’s not fair to Nico.”

Percy sighs. “You might be right.”

“I’m always right.”

Percy butts his head against Annabeth’s shoulder, and he can hear a grin in her voice when she next says. “We’ll figure it out, don’t worry. Just, stop making it all about you. Nico went through some things and most of it has nothing to do with you.”

“It feels like it does,” Percy says into her sleeve, turning his head to so that his forehead rests on her shoulder, mouth pressed into the fabric of her familiar orange tee. Annabeth laughs. Percy nudges the sleeve up with his nose and places a gentle kiss on her arm.

“Get off me, you goofball,” Annabeth pushes his away by his forehead, but she’s smiling. Percy likes to see her smile, and he smiles back. She leans in to give him a quick kiss on the mouth. “So, did you ever find out why Nico came here?”

“Shit!” Percy pulls back so fast he hits head on the wall beside his bed. “Ow! Fuck!”

“You idiot,” Annabeth says affectionately. She takes his head gently between her hands and looks him over. “No permanent damage, but I don’t know how we’d be able to tell.”

“Hey!” Percy protests.

“So, Nico?” Annabeth prompts.

“Yeah. Nico. Apparently there’s a sea monster running loose on the west coast.”

“What kind of sea monster?”

Percy shrugs. “Apparently it had spines.”

Annabeth gives him a dirty look. “Thanks, Percy. That helps.”

“Frank wasn’t more specific!”

“And I’ll bet you ten drachmas that it didn’t occur to you to ask first.”

Percy looks down, sheepish. Annabeth clucks her teeth at him.

“Well, come on then. We better go find Nico.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Percy asks, hesitant.

Annabeth crosses her arms over her chest, looking unimpressed. She doesn't even have to say anything, just stares him down. Percy sighs, and leads the way out of his cabin.

\--

They don’t find Nico in any of the usual places, but a quick check in with Hazel reveals that at least he hasn’t returned to New Rome.

“I don’t think he would be strong enough anyway. Shadow travel still takes a lot out of him,” she tells them, her face lit with concern. They promise to find him, and Percy leaves to do another sweep, while Annabeth tries to extract more information about the sea monster.

In the end, it looks like they’ll have to head out without finding him, because Hazel’s description was a bit more urgent than Frank’s had been, and “50-foot snake with razor sharp spines” isn’t something that they can ignore for any longer.

They’re double checking one another’s gear- Annabeth tightens the straps on Percy’s backpack, and he makes sure that she’s packed enough food, when Nico comes running up.

“I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re not,” Percy replies, not turning away from Annabeth. To Annabeth, he adds, “Also, you should get more instant potatoes.”

“We have enough for three weeks!” Annabeth replies, just as Nico says “Yes, I am!”

“Look, you’re still injured,” Percy says. 

“No, I’m fine.” Nico lifts up the hem of the shirt he’s wearing, still one of Percy’s, and reveals a thin red line where the bleeding gash from yesterday had been. Percy and Annabeth exchange looks.

Percy tries another tactic. “You were already hurt fighting this thing once.”

“It was an accident!” Nico protests. He looks younger when he fights like this, half pleading. It makes Percy want to leave him behind even more. Percy hesitates. Nico swallows. “Look, if this is because you don’t trust me, then just tell me. Don’t give me bullshit excuses.” He tilts his chin up and braces himself, like he’s expecting a blow. Lost, Percy looks at Annabeth. She just lifts her eyebrows at him, waiting.

Great, thanks Annabeth. Girlfriend of the year award. “Nico, you know that’s not it. But it was hard enough the first time. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“You’re with me this time,” Nico replies, and any arguments Percy could have made die in his mouth. His throat feels tight. Helpless, he looks at Annabeth again.

“Nico…” she says, then falls silent.

“I need to do this,” Nico turns his head to look at her instead, and Percy feels lighter, out from under the weight of those dark eyes. “It- Hazel. I just need to, ok?” His voice is harder when he talks now, fierce and almost angry.

And yeah, Percy can kind of get that. Nico doesn’t deal well with people he cares about getting hurt. He and Percy have that in common. And maybe getting to fight something big and strong that hurt his sister will help. Maybe it will heal that something inside of him that still seems broken, just a little bit.

“You can come,” Percy hears himself say, then curses himself. 

Nico opens his mouth, and Percy waits for him to say “really?” in that young, overjoyed way he once had. But Nico just closes his mouth again, not giving them a chance to change their mind.

“I’m ready now,” he says, striding off ahead of them like he’s going to march right out of camp, like he’s going to walk to Washington state. 

“Not so fast,” Percy says, catching Nico by the back of his aviator jacket.

It’s a bad idea, he knows that as soon as he does it. Nico pulls up and goes totally rigid. “Let go of me,” he says, low and dangerous. Percy let’s go like his hands are on fire, and takes a step back for good measure.

Nico turns back to face him, eyes like cold obsidian.

‘Note to self,’ Percy thinks ‘don’t touch Nico.’

“What is it?” Nico asks.

“We just need to add more food, that’s all. Since there’s three of us.”

“Oh my god, Percy, if we add anymore food, we’ll need an army to eat it all.”

“Well, we should at least get some instant pasta,” he turns to Nico. “You like pasta, right? You’re Italian.”

“Well, as long as you’re not relying on stereotypes here,” Annabeth mutters. Percy smiles at Nico, inviting him to share in the joke. Nico’s face is like ice.

“Right,” Percy falters, hesitant again. “Just, grab a few extra things and meet us in the stable, ok? I promise we won’t leave without you. Actually, Annabeth, you go with him. Show of faith, right? Five minutes.”

“That’s not-” Nico says, but Percy trots off before Nico can finish.

\--

Percy’s a little late, but it is totally an accident. 

He did stop by the supply room to grab some extra food and bandages to account for a third person, but then it also occurred to him that Nico probably didn’t have a change of clothes with him. Especially since Percy had thrown away the one that was covered in dried blood. (He’d wanted to chuck in a fire and send it as an offering to Hades, to say ‘look the fuck after your son, dickwad,’ but he hadn’t.)

In fact, Percy isn’t entirely sure if Nico owns any other clothes at all. He’s not entirely sure he’s seen him in anything other than that one black-with-skulls shirt. Or maybe there was a different black-with-skulls shirt that he wore as well? Percy wasn’t sure.

So then he had to run back to his cabin to see grab some more of his Camp half-blood t-shirts. And then it occurred to him that they would also be too big on Nico, so he’s had to go to the Big House and talk Chiron into giving him some more in a smaller size. And by the time he’d done that, it had been a bit over ten minutes.

So he runs down to the stable to see Annabeth and Nico standing outside Blackjack’s stall. They’re wearing almost matching expression of irritation, both of them have arms crossed over their chests. Percy feels a surge of affection for them both, and even in the face of of their mutual annoyance, he can’t help but smile. 

“Hey guys!” He says, bounding in. “‘Sup?”

“You’re late,” they say in unison. Which is pretty dang adorable, in Percy’s opinion. Nico and Annabeth exchange startled glances and Nico looks away quickly. Annabeth, however, does not, giving Nico a speculative look.

“I got some things,” Percy replies evasively. “Are we going to get this show on the road, or what? Nico, would you give Annabeth a hand with her tack?”

Annabeth sniffs. “I can do it perfectly well-” she catches Percy’s eyes and stops. “Yeah, actually, some help would be good.”

Nico looks hesitant, and Percy gives him a thumbs up. 

“You look just like Jason when you do that,” Nico says. Percy’s face falls and he drops his hand.

“Great,” he says. 

Nico frowns. “Are you mad at Jason or something?”

“What? No. No, of course not.”

“Jason has something Percy wants,” Annabeth says archly, and Percy glares at her. Nico looks back and forth between the two of them, then visibly decides not to get involved. 

Percy steps into Blackjack’s stall. “Hey buddy,” he says.

:Hey boss! Who are we fighting?: Blackjack asks.

“Who says we’re fighting anyone?” Percy asks, giving Blackjack a sugar cube from his pocket. 

Blackjack’s ears fall comically. :We’re not fighting?:

“Naw, I’m just messing with you. We’re headed over to Washington state.”

Blackjack gives him a blank look. “The other ocean,” Percy clarifies. Annabeth makes a noise like she wants to say something, but when Percy looks over at her, she and Nico are carefully putting a saddle on a patient Porkpie. 

Percy doesn’t bother to saddle Blackjack. He’s better without one, and Blackjack doesn’t like them. He says they make him itch. Annabeth clips their bags onto the loops on the saddle, designed for that purpose, then mounts up.

“Um,” Nico says, looking back and forth between Blackjack and Porkpie, then at the other Pegasi. All of them are watching him warily. “I’ll just meet you there.”

“No, you don’t,” Percy replies. “I don’t want you tired out before we even get to the fighting.”

Nico looks distinctly nervous, one of the first times he’s done so in Percy’s memory. 

“Changed your mind about coming with us?” Percy asks, swinging up onto Blackjack’s back. 

Nico squares his jaw. “No way!”

“Good,” Percy says. “Come on.” He trots Blackjack over next to Nico and offers a hand down.

“You?” Nico asks. Percy hides a wince at Nico’s dismayed tone.

“Yeah, me. I’m a better horseman than Annabeth anyway. No offense.” The last is directed at his girlfriend, who’s watching the two of them with a speculative expression on her face. She looks up at his words, meeting his eyes and grinning. 

“Horse-person, and none taken. We can’t all be the children of horse-gods.”

“I don’t think-,” Nico begins

“That we should waste anymore time? Good thinking.” Percy grabs Nico’s arm and pulls him up behind him in one massive tug. It’s too easy. They need to get some serious food into this kid. 

“Woah!” Nico clutches at Percy’s back, then pulls away. Percy can feel him settling himself. 

“I thought that my horse-stuff should balance out the two Big Three Kids thing,” Percy says over his shoulder. Hopefully. That, or it will make Zeus twice as likely to ‘accidentally’ shoot them out of the sky. One of the two. “You’ll have to hold on to me if you don’t want to fall off.” 

“I know that!” Nico snaps. Percy feels Nico edge closer, but there’s a careful distance between them. Percy is pretty sure he could measure it to one inch exactly. Well, Nico will learn soon enough. He waits until he feels stick-thin arms wrap around his waist, then clucks at Blackjack.

:Do we have to take the death kid?: Blackjack whines. Percy thumps him lightly between the ears in reply, rather than give the question away by replying outloud.

“Ready to go?” he calls.

“Ready,” Annabeth replies, pulling up at his side.

“No,” he thinks he hears from Nico. Then, more steadily. “Ready.”

“Great!” He nudges Blackjack into a gallop. Nico gasps, and clutches tighter to Percy’s waist. Percy grins. Then he urges Blackjack into flight, and they’re off.


	2. Monsters Are Easy (Feelings Are Hard)

Even without in-flight entertainment, it’s a pretty good trip until they were attacked by the giant metal chickens.

Somewhere over what Percy estimates to be Indiana, a feather that cuts like a knife comes out of nowhere and takes a good chunk out of his hair. 

“Look out,” Annabeth calls over her shoulder, a bit too late Percy’s opinion. 

“Thanks!” he calls back, sarcastic. He looks around for where it came from and feels his heart sink at the sight of an oncoming swarm ugly, terribly familiar looking pigeons.

“Stymphalion birds!” Annabeth calls. 

“I can see that!” Percy shouts back, drawing his sword. “Any ideas?” he asks Nico. He can’t hear an answer over the sound of the wing and the shriek of the birds, but he can feel Nico’s headshake against his back. “Great,” he mutters to himself.

Then the cloud of birds is on them. He can feel the beaks driving into his skin, razor sharp and painful. He takes out five in one sweep of his sword, but it’s not nearly enough. Nico is holding onto his waist with one hand and wielding his own sword with deadly accuracy in the other. 

They cover each other well, Nico getting the ones coming up on Percy’s blindside, Percy making sure that none of them make it to Nico, but Annabeth isn’t doing as well. “Hold on!” Percy calls, steering Blackjack closer to Porkpie. 

“There’s too many!” Annabeth screams over the birds and then wind.

“I hate these things!” Percy agrees, scatting another dozen in a swirl of feathers and dust. He can feel a gouge in his eyes dripping blood into his eyes, and Annabeth has blood matting her blonde hair down. He can’t see Nico, but Percy doubts he’s any better off. 

“We need to land!” Nico shouts, directly in Percy’s ear, which, ow.

Annabeth nods her agreement, and sheathes her sword so that she can bend over Porkpie’s neck.

“Hold on,” Percy tells Nico again, waiting until he feels both of Nico’s arms around his waist before pulling into a sharp dive. It wasn’t what the stupid birds were expecting, and they get a moment of reprieve as they hurtle towards the ground at an eye-watering pace.

But they’re going too fast, and Percy can see that Annabeth has already started to pull up. Blackjack backwings furiously, but it’s not enough. Percy turns enough that he can grab Nico, using one hand to protect the boy’s neck as Blackjack hits the hard and they go rolling off. Nico still has a hold of him as they go rolling. 

They come to a halt after a few paces, Nico pulled on top and the screech of stupid, angry birds in their ears. They don’t have time to catch their breath though. Percy feels the wind from Porkpie’s wings on his face as Nico rolls off him, coughing. 

“You ok?” Annabeth asks, hopping off to give him a hand up.

“Peachy,” Percy replies grumpily, feeling little cuts opening all across his face. Annabeth pulls Nico up as well. Nico looks more than a little pale, and then his whole face goes green. He barely turns to the side in time to avoid hitting Annabeth and Percy when he is suddenly and spectacurly sick.

And then the birds are on them. Automatically, Annabeth and Percy take up defensive stands on either side of Nico while he recovers. 

“Any ideas, wise girl?” Percy asks.

“None of Chiron’s music this time,” she says grimly. “I don’t suppose you have anything.”

“I seem to have left my boombox at home,” Percy replies. 

“What, what are they?” Nico asks, straightening and wiping his mouth. Without stopping her swipes at the birds, Annabeth passes him her water bottle, and Nico rinses and spits.

“Zepplin birds,” Percy replies.

“Stymphalion birds,” Annabeth corrects.

“Yeah, that.”

Nico takes up his place between them, and it feels as natural as breathing, the three of them fighting back to back. “How do we beat them?”

“Terrible music,” Percy replies. 

“You’re joking.” 

“Afraid not.”

Nico shakes his head. “I will never understand Greek mythology.”

Annabeth snorts. “Not even when you’re living it?”

“Especially not then,” Nico replies. “Duck!” 

Percy and Annabeth both do, and Stygian Iron cleaves over their heads, taking out another dozen birds. It doesn’t help though, it’s like they haven’t even made a dent in the forces of the birds.

“I might have something!” Nico says. “Cover me.” He ducks down between them, and Percy and Annabeth do just that, making sure that none of the birds can reach Nico as he rummages for something in his bag.

“Aha!” He says, coming out with a small silver device in his hands.

“What is that?” Annabeth asks, at the same time that Percy says 

“Is that an iPod?”

Nico is fiddling with it, then something high pitched and distinctly jazzy comes out of the little stereos with surprising volume. 

“Is that Louis Armstrong?” Annabeth demands as the birds stop attacking them almost immediately. It doesn’t seem to meet whatever the bird criteria of ‘bad’ is, as they just kind of hover around uselessly, instead of going mindless like they had last time though. 

It’s enough though. While Nico stands there with his little silver ipod thrust up into the air, Annabeth and Percy cut great swathes through the birds, scattering them into dust. Then the sound trips over into what Percy is pretty sure is Italian opera music.

“Really?” he calls at Nico, incredulous. Nico goes red and glares at him. This music has a greater effect on the bird, jostling them out of their stillness and into the mad flurry that Percy remembered from when he was twelve. They do half the damage to themselves, taking one another out with their sharp beaks.

It takes another two Italian opera songs and one more jazzy number that Percy doesn't recognize before all the birds are dead.

They all stand their, winded and sore. Percy and Nico are covered in scratches and roadburn from their fall, and all three of them have deep gouges on their arms and heads from the birds. They all stare at one another, breathing heavily. Above sound of their breathing, Louis Armstrong croons, “And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.”

“I can’t believe you have an iPod!” Percy rounds on Nico. “You’re from the 30s!”

“Well, a record player wouldn’t fit in my pocket,” Nico replies huffily, switching the music off and putting the ipod in his pocket.

Annabeth starts to laugh, bending at the waist to put her hands on her knees. Percy and Nico turn to stare at eachother, then look down at Annabeth.

“These stupid birds have to be the worst weakness ever,” Annabeth chuckles, and it’s not really funny, but Percy finds himself chuckling along. It feels good to laugh, even with the tangy taste of blood in his mouth. 

"Do you have any idea," Percy says through laughter, "how angry I would be if those stupid birds got me, and everything we've been through?"

Nico stares at them both like he’s worried about their safety, but slowly, as Annabeth and Percy lean on one another, laughing helplessly, he starts to smile, then a low, rusty chuckle emerges out of him. The three of them stand like that for a long time, leaning against one another and laughing helplessly.

\--

Rather than fly any further that night, they decide to find somewhere to stay for the night.

“Cave or hotel?” Percy asks Annabeth. Annabeth has recently set up her own bank account and has the all-important resource- the credit card.

Annabeth gives him that look that means she thinks he’s stupid. “I doubt we’re going to find a hotel with a stable.” She looks pointedly at Porkpie and Blackjack. Both pegasi also have bleeding gouges, and their wings and heads hang low with exhaustion.

:That was very not fun, boss.: Blackjack says tiredly. Percy goes over to him and runs a comforting hand over Blackjack’s muzzle. 

“I know, buddy. We’re going to go rest, ok?”

Blackjack butts his head into Percy’s chest affectionately, which Percy takes an approval.

“It’s warm enough to sleep outside, but we’ll need some more cover.”

Annabeth frowns. “Gods, I wish I still had my laptop. There was a GPS feature.”

“There are some caves about three miles that way,” Nico points north,the mountainous area around them seems to peek, stretching towards the sky

“Are you sure?” Percy asks.

Nico bristles defensively. “I’m not as good as Hazel about stuff like that, but I’m pretty sure.”

Annabeth puts a hand on Nico’s shoulder, and he flinches away. There is a brief moment of awkwardness. “Why don’t we go check it out? Caves would be great.”

They set off in relative silence, their packs spit between Porkpie and Blackjack. The two pegasi are following them on foot, worn out from the scramble. Percy and Annabeth walk close enough that their shoulders brush occasionally, but Nico walks almost three feet away. Percy is worried that soon he’s going to have to shout to be heard.

Percy grips Annabeth’s hand and starts walking in a slight diagonal that brings them both closer to Nico’s path. Nico alters his own direction without seeming to notice, keeping the distance. Percy speeds up, hoping to outpace him, and Nico speeds up to match.

They’re almost jogging, and neither of them are acknowledging this stupid dance they’re doing before Annabeth pulls sharply on Percy’s hand, yanking him back. “This is dumb.” She raises her voice. “Nico, come here!”

Nico shoves his hands into the pockets of his aviator jacket, and for a moment Percy thinks that he’s going to argue. After a moment, he comes closer.

“What?”

“We should stay close, in case there are more monsters nearby. Between you and Percy, we’ll be putting out a strong trail for them to follow.”

“Sorry,” Percy says. Nico just shrugs, but he falls into step with them, walking beside Annabeth.

“So.” Percy says after a long moment of silence. “Louis Armstrong, huh?”

“We saw him when he was touring. My mom,” he stops and swallows “we had records. Bianca used to dance all over the apartment.”

Annabeth frowns, but it’s thoughtful expression. “I thought that there was a fascist government in Italy at the time.”

Nico shrugs. “It was just the government. It just was. But there was a tour through Italy, and it was a big deal, ok.”

“But-”

“How much did you know about the government when you were eight?” Nico asks, voice tense.

“Well, wise girl here might have an unfair advantage over the two of us,” Percy says conspiratorially. “But I can tell you right now that I knew the name of our president and pretty much nothing else.”

Annabeth rolls her eyes at him, but drops the subject. 

The continue on for another few moments in silence. Every so often, Percy notices that Nico is drifting further away, and Percy will nudge Annabeth closer to close the distance. Nico seems to get the hint and doesn’t edge away for another ten or so minutes.

Not knowing what to say and frustrated because of it, Percy rakes a hand through his hair. It comes away tacky with half-dried blood and he makes a face.

“Got any nectar?” he asks, bumping Annabeth with his elbow. He feels stupid for not thinking of it earlier, when all three of them are scattered with blood and gouges.

“Just a swallow,” Annabeth warns, pulling a small flask from her pocket and handing it to him.

“Yes, mother,” Percy rolls his eyes, taking a quick sip and passing it back. It rolls through him like sunshine. It tastes like the blue birthday cake he’d had on his 16th birthday, right before everything went to hell. 

Annabeth takes her own swallow and passes it to Nico, who takes it without moving any closer. He takes a hasty sip and hesitates it when he goes to hand it back.

“Should we?” he gestures at the pegasi with the flask.

“I don’t think they can have any,” Percy says hesitantly. He looks to Annabeth, who usually knows these things.

“They probably shouldn’t. But we do need to clean out those scrapes when we get to shelter. How much further?” The last bit is directed to Nico.

“Just a bit more. Where those hills are,” Nico points. The sun is still high in the sky, and Percy can make out some shadows in the rocky slopes.

“Great,” Percy says. “How are you guys doing?” He looks back at Porkpie and Blackjack as he says it, and gets about the answers he would expect from two tired pegasi who aren’t used to walking. “They’re fine,” he tells Annabeth and Nico. “Among other things.”

When the reach it, it turns out that “caves” is a big of an over-estimation of the size. It’s barely big enough that the three of them can fit inside, and there’s no room for the pegasi.

“I’m sorry,” Nico says, looking miserable. “They felt bigger.”

“It’s fine,” Percy reassures him, though he does wish that they had more space to work with. This little alcove won’t be much protection when local monsters get their scent. “We should probably have sprung for a hotel though.”

“And then we still wouldn’t have anywhere for Porkpie and Blackjack to stay. Is something wrong, Nico?”

Nico is peering around the cave, confusion etched on his face. 

“This isn’t right,” he says. “I felt bigger ones. I’m sure of it.”

Annabeth looks at him doubtfully. “Nico,” she says carefully.

“Don’t do that!” He snaps, rounding on her. “Don’t talk to me like I’m a little kid! I know what I’m talking about.”

Annabeth holds out her hands, placating and gentle. “I wasn’t saything that. I know you’re strong. You’re stronger than anyone I know.”

Percy think about protesting, just jokingly, but now isn’t the time. He’s actually kind of proud of himself for picking up on that. 

Nico has fallen silent, hands twisting nervously into the hem of his shirt. He doesn’t seem to know how to respond to that, which makes Percy want to smile, and also want to give Nico a hug. He’s pretty sure that the last one would end with Nico’s sword in his gut right now, so he doesn’t. 

Instead, he focuses on a tug he can feel below his gut, familiar and steady. He frowns, thoughtful. Nico might be onto something here. 

Percy heads over to where Blackjack is standing, grazing almost absently at the scant grass.

“Feel like a quick ride?” he asks, patting Blackjack on the neck.

:Always,: Blackjack says, over confident and eager, but Percy can hear tiredness beneath his words. 

“Not very far,” he says reassuringly. “I’ll be right back,” he calls to Annabeth and Nico, who are watching him curiously.

“Wait, you can’t just-” Annabeth begins, but he cuts her off by nudging Blackjack into flight. He’s found that it’s sometimes easier to ask Annabeth for forgiveness than permission. Besides, maybe she can get out three words to Nico without making the boy angry. It’ll be more than Percy has managed, recently.

Blackjack wheels in the sky and up here the air is cool and fast, catching at Percy’s clothes and Blackjack’s loose feathers.

:Which way, boss?: Blackjack asks, and Percy points him more north. He can see Annabeth and Nico below, staring up at him, and he gives them a quick wave before he urges Blackjack forward. The slight cave they had found was at the bottom of a rise of cliffs, but Percy has a theory. 

He and Blackjack soar over the top of the mountain, and then angle back down. Percy follows the tug in his gut, a knowledge of something that’s on tip of his tongue. 

“There,” he points. There are dark shadows on the side of the mountain, where part of it has smoothed out into a ledge. It it, most definitely a cave. A proper, deep one. Blackjack swoops just into the entrance to let Percy off.

“Hello!” Percy calls, just to see if his voice will echo. It does. He grins, delighted. Carefully, regretting the fact that Annabeth has the flashlights in her pack, he steps in. He can’t see it here, even with the natural light from the sun, but there is water deeper in there, somewhere. He can feel it, sense it the same way Nico could feel that the caves existed.

“You could have just told us you where you were going,” a voice to his left says, and Percy nearly has a heart attack.

“Holy gods!” He yells, spinning on his heel and fumbling for Riptide. He gets it out of his pocket and points it, still in pen form, at where the voice had come from.

Nico steps out of the deeper shadows of the cave, looking unimpressed. “Going to write on me?” he asks, eyebrows raised. 

“Don’t DO that,” Percy says, ignoring the question. “Gods, Nico.”

“Sorry,” Nico says, not sounding sorry at all. Percy puts his pen back into his pocket grumpily. 

“How did you find me?”

Nico shrugs. “I just did.”

Percy gives him a dirty look. “Where’s Annabeth.”

“Probably following. She wasn’t happy.”

“I’ll bet,” Percy mutters. “But hey,” he says, brightening. “I found your cave!”

Nico looks around. “Yes you did. Congratulations. You still could have told us where you were going.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Percy grins. “Someone needs to keep you on your toes, keep your life exciting.” 

Nico’s face darkens. “My life is exciting enough.”

“Right,” Percy says. “Yeah. Sorry.”

They stand in awkward silence for a moment. Then Percy says, “Hey, check this out.” He steps further into the cave. “ECHO!” 

His voice reverberates all around them, coming back in waves and bounding back again.

“Hey, seaweed brain, keep it down,” Annabeth calls from behind him. He turns to see her dismounting from Porkpie, looking annoyed. Percy gives her his best winning smile. Annabeth remains unimpressed.

“Pretty sweet cave though, right?” Percy asks proudly. Annabeth just shakes her head and guides Porkpie further inside.

“It will do, I guess. Just don’t make too much noise.”

“Hazel met her,” Nico says, apropos of nothing.

“Met who?” Percy asks, confused.

“Echo.”

“They met, I’m sorry, what?”

“Echo was an oread, a mountain nymph. They had to fight Narcissus or something. Didn’t Leo make himself into a greaser?”

“Something like that,” Nico says. “I’d forgotten you guys were there.”

And then it’s quiet, and Percy wonders if Annabeth is thinking what he is, that they had been there, but Nico hadn’t. That Nico had been trapped, locked away in a clay jar, eating one pomegranate seed a day. 

“We should set up,” Annabeth says, clearing her throat. “I’m going to go get flashlights. We could probably head further in.”

“Toss me one, I’ll bring up back some water.” Annabeth tosses Percy a flashlight and he heads further into the cave. He keeps Annabeth’s words in mind and tries not to make more noise than necessary, but the sound of his footsteps still echoes around the cave. He can tell he’s getting close when the echoes get a slightly tinnier sound, hitting the water instead of stone. 

“This isn’t creepy at all,” he mutters to himself, shining the flashlight over the water. It’s pitch black down here, the only light where is from his flashlight, and it’s not nearly enough. His light hits the water and it’s almost absorbed by it. The water is dark and perfectly still, nothing like the roaring oceans that give him strength.

He’s reminded, suddenly, terribly, of the water sprites in Rome, of the water so thick and dark it could drown even him. He shivers, and draws back from the water. He wants to call for Annabeth, or even for Nico. But then he would have to explain it, to put his sudden, stupid fear into words. 

Besides, he reasons with himself, it’s not like he has to get in the water. He doesn’t even have to touch it, if he’s careful.

“Are you just going to stand there all day?”

Percy screams, just a little.

He's getting real tired of people sneaking up on him in dark caves. He spins around, his light shining on a pretty naiad, blue hair falling to her shoulders. She's leaning on the edge of the lake, crossed arms resting on the side, head on her arms.

He's faster with his sword this time, has it uncapped and pointing at her before she can move.

"That's not very nice," she says reprovingly. "It was just a question."

"What do you want?" Percy demands.

"I just wanted to say hi!" she says angrily. "Maybe introduce myself a bit. We don't get many people around here."

"We?" Percy looks around for others, shining his flashlight around, then bringing it back to her.

"My sisters and I. And there are a few oreads around. They didn't want to talk to you." She puts her hand up in front of her face like she's blocking direct sunlight. "Can you put that away, it's hurting my eyes."

"I need it to see," Percy replies, but he points it at the wall a little to her left, so it's not shining directly in her face.

“Wow, your eyesight must suck,” she says.

Percy opens his mouth to retort when the sound of running footsteps makes him turn. Two beams of light are heading his way, followed by Annabeth and Nico, swords drawn.

“What's wrong?” Nico asks.

“We heard you scream,” Annabeth says.

“I think I made a new friend.” Percy gestures to the nyad with his flashlight.

The nyad waves cheerfully. “Hi, I'm Brooke!”

“Brooke?” Nico repeats, incredulous.

“What about it?” Brooke asks, narrowing her eyes.

“Nothing,” Annabeth says, stepping up to Percy's side.

“Oh, hello.” Brooke pulls herself out of the water to sit on the side. “Who are you?” Her tone is distinctly flirty. Percy blushes and averts his eyes. Her new position makes it quite clear that wild nyiads, unlike the ones at camp, do not wear clothing.

Annabeth falters, caught by surprise. “I'm Annabeth.”

“Annabeth,” the naiad repeats, curling her voice around the name. “That is a beautiful name.”

Annabeth glances at Percy, who shrugs at her. “Thank you?”

“Oh, it's my pleasure,” Brooke purrs. “Is there anything I can help you with, Annabeth?”

“We need some water,” Percy says, when Annabeth looks like she's struggling for an answer.

“I have plenty of water,” Brooke says, all flirtation going out of her voice when she turns to Percy. “You can take some. Are you sure there's nothing else I can do for you?” The last bit is directed at Annabeth again.

“I'm, um, not single,” Annabeth says quickly, and even in the dim light, Percy can tell she's blushing.

“Oh, honey, neither am I,” Brooke says, with a smile that reveals pointed teeth. “But that shouldn't stop us. Besides, I don't think Quartz would mind. She could even join us.” Annabeth chokes. “She's an oread,” Brooke adds helpfully.

“No, I, thank you though,” Annabeth says quickly, her face flaming.

Brooke pouts. “If you're sure.”

“I'm sure.”

“Well, if you change your mind, I'll be here.”

“I'll keep that in mind,” Annabeth says politely.

“Tell your water boy he can take some of the water, but be quick about it,” Brooke says, sliding back into the water.

“I'm right here!” Percy says indignantly.

Brooke gives him a once over. “You're not my type, honey.”

“That's not, I wasn't-”

Annabeth steps forward and puts her hand over his mouth. “Thank you, Brooke. We appreciate your hospitality. Do you know if we will be safe if we spend the nights in these caves.”

Brooke frowns, thoughtful. “You should be fine. We like demi-gods here. I just won't tell Quartz how cute you are.” She winks.

Nico makes an odd little choking noise, and Brooke turns to look at him.

“You're a shy little thing, aren't you,” she says, grinning at him. “Cute too. Not as cute as Annie here, but if I were into guys.”

“Hey!” Percy protests. “What about me?”

Brooke gives him another once over and clucks her teeth. “I'm sure someone will be interested in you. Someday.”

She drops back into the water with a small splash, the sound of her laugh trailing away, and fading into bubbles that rise on the surface. Percy splutters at her while Annabeth laughs.

“Yeah, Percy. If you try really hard, you might be as cute as me and Nico,” she says, and dissolves into giggles.

“Ha ha, you're so funny,” Percy says, but he's smiling as he says it. Annabeth doesn't laugh as much as she used to, and it's good to hear it again.

Comforted by the sound of her giggles, echoing in the dark cave, he opens up his water bottle and pulls water from the lake into it. Then, without asking, he takes Annabeth from where it's clipped to her belt and fills it the same way.

“Nico?” he asks, holding his hand out. Nico is still staring at the water where the naiad disappeared.

“What? Oh.” Nico shakes himself out of whatever daze he was in and hands his water bottle over to Percy.

“She was pretty hot,” Percy says, teasing. “Good taste too.” He fills Nico's water bottle the same as the others and wonders why Nico flushes slightly.

“Aw, thanks,” Annabeth teases, coming up to put her arm around his waist. “And don't worry, you'll find someone who can stand your ugly mug.” She gives him a quick peck on the cheek. Percy pouts at her. “Oh, don't make that face at me. Nico and I think you're plenty cute. Right, Nico?”

Percy smiles at her, pleased that she's including Nico in their teasing, and he gives her an equally quick peck on the lips as he passes her water bottle back. Nico makes a strangeld noise in the back of his throat that makes Percy turn to look at him. Nico's face has done this weird thing where he's gone pale and red at the same time, and his face is twisted weirdly.

“Nico?” Percy asks, concerned

“Nothing!” Nico says, snatching his water bottle out of Percy's hands and storming up the path back to the entrance. Percy looks at Annabeth, who shrugs at him. Percy shrugs back.

Sighing, wondering if he'll ever be able to understand Nico, Percy slips his hand around Annabeth's shoulders and pulls his to his side. Her arm around his waist again, they head back up the path after Nico.

\--

Nico is already piling sticks into a pile to make a fire by the time they reach him. It partly they had stopped a couple times when Percy pulled Annabeth into the stone walls to kiss her, but he also suspects that Nico had taken a few shortcuts through the shadows. This cave provides plenty.

Nico is struggling to light the fire with a pack of crushed matches when they pull up to his side. 

“Try this,” Percy says, tossing Nico his lighter. Nico catches it without looking around.

“Why do you have that?” Annabeth asks, frowning. “You aren’t smoking, are you?”

Percy rolls his eyes. “Yes, Annabeth, I’ve taken up smoking. I decided that Kronos and Gaia weren’t enough and I should court death by lung cancer.”

Nico snorts, but when Percy glances at him, he hasn’t looked up from where the tinder has just started to light. Annabeth socks him gently in the shoulder. “Why, then.”

“I thought I might need to start a campfire,” Percy grins at her. “Besides, it saved my life once.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Me and Hazel and Frank-” Percy begins.

“Hazel, Frank and I,” Annabeth corrects. Percy ignores her.

“We were attacked by these stupid, ugly grain things. Kept trying to get up to eat them. I think. Something like that. So I threatened to set them all on fire. It was pretty great. Hazel had my back. She kept yelling ‘He’ll do it! He’s crazy!’ I think she really thought I was too.”

He laughs, leaning back on his hands. He misses Hazel, and Frank. He hardly gets to see them anymore. 

“God, those things were dumb though. They were like little green cupids, except they kept shouting out different types of grain.”

Nico goes stiff at that, for no reason that Percy can fathom. The fire flares up suddenly, casting his gaunt face into shadows. He sits back, wrapping thin arms around his knees.

“That was weird, right?” he says, his voice almost a whisper.

“The grain things? I mean, yeah, a little, but not more than anything else-”

“No, that!” Nico gestures back towards the depths of the cave. “The naiad.The way she,” he gestures, face going red. “Annabeth!”

Percy and Annabeth exchange looks. “No?” Percy asks. “I mean, it’s not something you see everyday, but more power to her and whatever. If she’s stuck in this boring place her whole life, she can do what she wants.”

“Or who she wants,” Annabeth adds, grinning. She bumps her shoulder against his, and Percy bumps back.

“Except my girlfriend.”

“And you’re just fine with that?” Nico sounds almost angry, throwing sticks into the fire with enough force to send embers jumping out.

“Well, not the part where she wanted a threesome with my girlfriend. But yeah. Besides, I’m from New York. It’s not like this is anything new.”

He looks to Annabeth, wanting to make sure that he’s saying this right, since Nico seems to be weirdly upset by it. 

“Nico,” Annabeth says slowly, carefully. “Do you think that there’s something bad about it.”

Nico has found a long stick and is poking at the fire with it. “Well.” He swallows. “You know, in Italy.” He stops. Percy tries not to learn forward too obviously, but Nico never talks about his past. Percy thinks he’s learned more about Nico today than he has in the entire time he’s known him.

“Yes?” Annabeth asks, and Nico draws back into himself.

“Nothing. It’s dumb.” He shoves himself up and grabs his water bottle. “I’m going to to check on the pegasi.”

“Wait!” Percy calls, then falters. He doesn’t know what to say. “Let me check the water first. You can never be too careful.”

Nico gives him a suspicious look. “Why you?”

“Because, of the three of us, I’m the least likely to be harmed if there’s something wrong with it.” He takes a quick swig from his own bottle before he can think better of it, trying to force away the sense memory of the dark, thick water from the well in Rome, clogging his throat.

The water is cool and fresh, almost sweet. It’s certainly better than it should be, coming from a still and stagnant lake in a forgotten cave.

“Wow, Annabeth, she must have really liked you,” Percy says. 

Nico is staring at him. “You’re all crazy,” he says, and storms over to where Porkpie and Blackjack have settled. Percy can see them shy away from him, can see how Nico reacts to that with a wince.

:Boss?: Blackjack whickers.

“He just wants to look over the cuts,” Percy calls over. He moves closer, thinking that he’ll help Nico. Nico takes a reflexive step back, and Percy stops. They stare at eachother. Then Percy gives a small, careful smile. “You got this, right?”

Nico relaxes. “Yeah. I should be fine.”

Percy takes a step backwards, not taking his eyes off Nico. “Ok then. Call me if they give you any trouble.” He eyes the two pegasi. “Behave, you two.”

Porkpie neighs something rude, but lets Nico kneel by his side, so Percy will take what he can get. He returns to where Annabeth is setting up by the fire.

“You don’t think that this will make too much smoke?” he asks. 

“Hm?” Annabeth is watching Nico carefully dab the pegasi’s cuts with water, her face speculative. “Oh. No, we should be fine. It might be better actually. Hopefully any monsters will just think that we’re campers.”

Percy makes a skeptical noise. “Yeah, ok.” 

“Make yourself useful and get some food from the packs.”

“Instant potatoes?” Percy asks eagerly. Annabeth rolls her eyes. 

“Sure.”

“Sweet!” Percy punches the air in victory, and gets the pack of instant potatoes.

\--

Nico insists on taking the first watch, despite Percy and Annabeth’s protests, and cements his argument by stalking out to the cave opening and dropping down into a sitting position, sword at his side.

Percy curls up by the fire, Annabeth against his front, closer to the fire then Percy is. They’ve spread their sleeping rolls out together, and it’s warmer than it would be alone. It’s supposed to be early fall, but the night is cold. 

It should be hard to fall asleep, with the potential for danger and the hard stone beneath him. But Nico is on watch, and despite their rocky history, Percy trusts him. Nico will makes sure that nothing hurts them.

The thought is oddly comforting, and Percy falls asleep more quickly than he would have expected.

He comes awake just as quickly, sitting straight up and fighting back a scream. Beside him, Annabeth rolls over. Percy pants, shaking and gulping in air. He can still see the terrible heart of Tartarus, the army of the monsters in front of him and the feel of malice and hate all around him.

He looks around and sees dark eyes gleaming in the dying embers. He scrambles out of the bedroll, trying to get away from a sudden terror. 

“Percy, it’s ok. It’s me.” Nico’s face comes into the light, but doesn’t move any closer. Percy stares at him, silent, breathing hard.

“Nico?”

“Yeah. It’s just me.”

Percy lets out his breath in a long woosh and climbs to his feet. Nico is still sitting near the entrance, body twisted around so that he can see Percy.

Percy drops down beside him, making sure to leave enough room that Nico won’t feel the need to move away.

“Was it...?” Nico trails off.

“Yeah.”

“Me too, sometimes.” It sounds like it costs Nico something to admit, even though Percy would have thought so anyway.

“Yeah,” Percy replies, soft. They don’t say anything else, just sit there. For once, it’s not an awkward silence. He wants to move closer, to get the level of human contact that always calms him after dreams of Tartarus, but he knows Nico won’t like it. So he stays where he is, and stares up at the sky.

“There are so many stars,” he says, voice barely above a whisper. He’s never seen stars like this, coating the sky instead of a few distant twinkles. He understands now, the magnitude of what it means to count the stars.

“There’s Orion,” Nico says, pointing. 

“I don’t see it.”

“It’s right there. See, there’s the belt, those three right there.”

Percy squints, trying to follow the line of Nico’s finger. Nico huffs and moves closer, so that their arms almost touch. “See?”

Nico’s arm is too thin, the bones in his wrist and hands delicate and small. “Yeah,” Percy says. “Here, lie back.” He turns so that his his head is towards the cave entrance and lies down. The ground is cold.

“We’re supposed to be watching,” Nico protests.

“We can watch from here. I see Orion now.”

Nico shifts around so that his can lie his head down next to Percy. There is almost a foot of space between them again, and Percy moves closer subtly. 

“There’s Ophiuchus.”

“Where?” Percy asks, a smile tugging at his lips. 

Nico huffs in exasperation and shifts closer. “It’s right there!”

“I see now,” Percy lies. “How do you know all these things?”

Nico’s hand drops down to his side. “Bianca taught me.”

Something, something about the silence of the night and the stars above them, prompts Percy to say “You don’t talk about her much.”

“No,” Nico says softly. Percy sits and lets him have a moment. Nico takes a deep breath, like a gasp. Like a sob. “I used to listen to her stories and match them up to my mythomagic cards.” He laughs, a little choked. “That’s Hercules. He had plus 10 stength and if you equipped him with the lion skin, he became invulnerable to physical attacks.”

“He should have had plus 20 douche points. And every time you brought him out, you’d have to apologize.”

Nico laughs, creaky and soft. “That’s not how mythomagic works, Percy.” It’s the first time in a long time that Nico has said his name. Percy smiles.

“There’s Perseus,” Percy says, pointing. “He’s probably fighting that monster. Like a badass.”

Nico laughs again. “You would know that one.”

“Do you know what he’s fighting?”

“I’m not sure. Which one is he?”

Percy edges closer. “Over there.”

“There?” Nico points, too far left. Percy puts his hand on Nico’s wrist and guides it to the right place. It sends a shock up his arm. Nico gasps and pulls free, dropping his arm to his side and scooting away, not even trying to be subtle about it. Percy tries not to sigh too obviously. 

“How many points did he have?” Percy asks, trying to get that sense of camaraderie back.

“I don’t think he was in my deck,” Nico replies, but Percy can hear that the tension is back in his voice. Talking with Nico is like the worst game of shoots and ladders ever. Two steps forward, ten steps back, and then he gets stuck chocolate swamp. Or maybe that’s Candyland.

“He’s holding the head of Medusa, I’m pretty sure,” Nico adds, tracing the outline in the stars with an outstretched finger.

Percy grins. “I’ve done that.”

“Held the head of Medusa?” Nico repeats, surprised. 

“I mailed it to Olympus.”

Nico actually sits up to stare at him. “You didn’t!”

“I did. And then my mom used it to get rid of my shitty stepfather.”

“I met your stepfather. He was nice.”

“Not Paul,” Percy replies. “There was another one.” His hands clench into fists. It’s been years, but he still gets mad when he thinks about Ugly Gabe. “He hit her.”

Nico drops back down beside him. “And she turned him to stone.”

Percy grins, and it’s all vindictive pleasure. “Yeah.”

Nico whistles, low. “Remind me not to mess with your mom.”

“You wouldn’t anyway,” Percy says, and it feels like a confession.

“No,” Nico agrees. “No, I wouldn’t.”

Silence falls again. It’s nice. He can hear Annabeth snoring softly in the cave and it only adds to the calm. He likes being the only one who knows that she snores. He likes that he can share it with Nico, who accepts so few things.

“You should go to sleep,” Percy says. “It’s my turn for watch anyway.”

Nico draws in breath, and Percy just knows that he’s going to protest. “Nico, please. You’re a member of this team. That means letting us take on some of the work sometimes.”

Nico lets out the breath and doesn’t say anything. Slowly, taking his sword with him when he goes, he heads deeper into the cave. Percy sits up to watch as he lays down on the opposite side of the campfire from Annabeth.

“Goodnight, Nico,” he says when it looks like Nico is settled.

“Goodnight, Percy.”

Percy waits until Nico is asleep to get up and pull out the third bedroll. He opens it up and carefully spreads it over Nico. The boy stirs, but miraculously doesn’t wake. Percy shakes his head, amused, and heads to the cave mouth to wait out his shift.

\--

Percy wakes up a few hours after dawn, blinking in the light coming from the cave mouth.

He flips back the top bedroll to free himself. He barely remembers waking Annabeth for her watch, he had fallen asleep so quickly. The bedroll had been warm from her body heat.

“Morning,” he says. 

Annabeth puts her finger to her lips, smiling at him, then points at Nico. Or rather, at the space where Nico was the night before. Now there is a small bundle of bedroll, curled in a tight ball. Percy can just make out Nico’s dark curls poking up from the mass. He grins.

Annabeth tosses him a power bar. Percy inspects it carefully, relieved that it’s not anything from Iris’ shop. Still, though. He tosses it back. “Chocolate chip?” he mouths, when Annabeth looks confused.

Annabeth rolls her eyes, but rummages in her pack for another one. This one she chucks at him, aiming for his head. He catches it out of the air and smirks at her. The second power bar, unexpected, hits him on the nose.

Annabeth grins to herself, and opens up the bar he’d thrown back. Percy opens his own and takes a bite with exaggerated force, making her smile.

They’re almost done packing up their bedrolls when movement from the other side of the cave catches Percy’s eyes. Nico is stirring, the blanket he’s tucked under shifting restlessly. A moment later, his head emerges from the bedroll, dark curls mussed even more than usual. He knuckles sleep from his eyes, and it makes him look young. Percy glances at Annabeth and sees that she’s wearing the same fond expression that Percy can feel on his own face.

“Are we leaving?” Nico asks, voice scratchy with sleep. He has the imprint of his jacket fabric on one cheek, pressed red into the skin.

“Soon,” Annabeth replies. “Here, eat this.” She tosses him another power bar. Nico looks at it distastefully, but when he catches Percy’s eyes he ducks his head and pulls the bar open.

“I should get more water, before we leave,” Percy says, standing. 

“Don’t go alone,” Annabeth cautions. “I’ll go with you. Nico, would you watch over the pegasi?”

Nico looks up, startled. He’s already finished his power bar. “Sure, ok.” 

“Have another power bar, I got plenty. We have a long time before lunch.” She heads deeper into the cave before Nico can reply. Percy shrugs at him then trots off after her. He takes her hand when he reaches her, letting her lead.

“I heard you two talking last night,” Annabeth says, after a moment. Percy looks over his shoulder, reflexive, but they’ve made enough turns that Nico is out of sight. 

“I heard you snoring,” he replies. “One of us is mistaken here.”

Annabeth clicks her teeth. “I woke up briefly and saw you sitting together,” she amends. “What were you talking about.”

“Nothing. The stars.” 

“Hmm.”

“What?” Percy asks.

“Nothing.”

“No, not nothing. That’s your thinking noise.”

Annabeth makes the same look over her shoulder that Percy had. With the shadows all around them, it’s still no guarantee that Nico hasn’t followed him but Percy trusts Nico enought to know that he hasn’t. They need him to stay with the pegasi, and Nico knows that.

Annabeth lowers her voice. “I used to think that Nico had a crush on me.”

Percy blinks at her. They’re talking about this now? “Yes? I mean, I think you’re right.”

“I used to think that. Now I’m not so sure.”

Percy nudges her. “Who wouldn’t have a crush on you?” His tone is joking, but the sentiment is sincere. Annabeth is amazing, intelligent and beautiful. He doesn’t understand why he doesn’t have to fight opponents for her affections off at swordpoint.

Annabeth makes another thoughtful noise. “Would it bother you?”

“Would what bother me?”

Annabeth sighs heavily. It’s her noise for when she thinks he’s being incredibly dense. She makes that noise a lot. “If Nico had a crush on me? Would it bother you.”

Percy slows to a stop, thinking it over. “It should. I feel like it should. But no, it doesn’t.”

“Why not?” Annabeth stops beside him, her grey eyes intent on his face.

“Because, well, first of all, I know you’d never cheat on me.” He tweaks her nose. She wrinkles it. “You’re not that kind of girl.”

“And second of all?” Annabeth presses. Perc shrugs, uncomfortable.

“Hell, I don’t know, Annabeth. He just. Nico’s earned the right to like who ever he likes.”

Annabeth hums her agreement, and moves in closer. It’s not purposeful, not seductive, she just leans against him, comfortable. “And you’re ok if it’s me?”

Percy sighs, putting his arms around her waist and resting his chin on the top of her head. “I want him to like someone who can make him happy. Kid deserves to be happy.” Percy puts his finger under Annabeth’s chin, making her look at him. “You know, if I thought that you two would make each other happy, I’d be ok with that.” He thinks it over, then amends. “Well, not ok. But I would deal with it.”

Annabeth laughs. “Don’t be stupid, seaweed brain. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

Percy sighs, relieved. “I wasn’t worried.”

Annabeth gives him a knowing look, but lets him break the embrace to continue deeper into the cave.

“Although,” Percy says, grinning. “Brooke wa right. He is pretty cute. You could do worse.”

“Really?” Annabeth asks, archly. There’s something there, in her tone. Something with meaning that he can’t figure out.

“In a pale, skinny kind of way,” Percy adds, feeling like he’s only making it worse. “You know, if you’re into that sort of thing.”

“If,” Annabeth says, like the word is heavy, bigger than two letters.

“I said if, didn’t I?” Percy grins. “You two would be pretty hot together. You’re all light and he’s all dark.”

“Really?” Annabeth asks, and her tone is so arch and knowing that Percy blushes without understanding why.

He ducks his head instead and pulls her along behind him. He gets the feeling that if he opens his mouth again, he’ll only get himself in trouble.

\--

That day of flying passes more peacefully than the day before. They aren’t attacked by anything, at any rate. Nico still doesn’t like flying though, Percy can tell. Percy doesn’t blame him- he can remember his single time in a plane just fine, and it’s not something he cares to repeat. The only reason that this doesn’t bother him is because a pegasi is sort of a Poseidon-Zeus neutral ground- and that doesn’t apply to Nico.

Nico alternates behind holding too tight to Percy’s waist, face pressed into Percy’s back, and not holding tight enough, putting enough space between them that Percy worries he’ll fall off.

Annabeth waves to him after they’ve been flying for what feels like hours. The sun is high in the sky, shining into their eyes and making Percy sweat. Percy pulls Blackjack over to Porkpie, leaning close so that Annabeth can yell over the wind.

Annabeth points down instead, and Percy nods. As one, they turn their pegasi into the wind and move into a descent. Percy is pretty sure that he hears a sigh of relief from Nico.

“Where are we?” Percy asks when they land. Annabeth checks something on her phone.

“Somewhere in Washington. We’re close. The question is whether or not we press on, or fight this thing tomorrow, when we’re fresh.”

“Well, isn’t it kind of, you know, killing people?” Percy asks. “We should get to it as soon as possible. Besides, we had a good day. Not that tiring. If we stop, we might be found by monsters.”

Nico stares up at the sky, squinting at the sun like he’s never seen it before. “We still have a few hours of daylight left.”

Percy checks his watch. “It’s about 2pm. It’s what, a half-hour to the ocean? We’d better go now.”

Nico is still staring at the sky. “It’s not 2. I’d say it’s not even noon yet. See, the sun hasn’t hit it’s peak.”

“But that’s,” Percy glances down at his watch, then up at the sun. “But we were flying for at least 5 hours.”

“Six,” Annabeth corrects. “And you’re forgetting the time difference. 2pm in New York is 11am on the west coast.”

Percy laughs, sheepish. “I knew that.” He did, too. It just hadn’t been on his mind.

“So, that’s practically a whole day. I say we press on. Nico, what do you think?” 

Nico glances from him to Annabeth. “I agree with Percy. If there are people in danger, we need to help them.”

“All agreed then,” Annabeth says, with finality. “Let’s get ready.”

They don’t have much to prepare- they’d worn most of their protective gear in the air. Percy pulls his and Annabeth’s helmets from their packs and helps her fasten it. She does the same for him. When he turns back to Nico, the boy has produced his black skull helmet from somewhere and is trying to adjust the strap under his jaw. 

“That is one freaky helmet, Nico,” Percy says jokingly. Nico stiffens up. “Relax. I’m teasing you. We’re friends, remember.”

“Friends,” Nico repeats skeptically, like it’s a foreign concept. Seriously, his life must suck. 

“Of course,” Percy replies, trying to sound cheerful and not incredibly pitying. “Here, let me get that for you.”

He takes a step forward slowly, hands outstretched, like he’s coming up on a skittish horse. Nico watches him warily, but he allows the contact. He even tilts his head up to let Percy fix that strap. It exposes the long, pale line of his throat. Percy has never realized how vulnerable the position was, how trusting. He and Annabeth do it so casually, but here it feels like a gift.

He tightens the strap gently, so that the helmet will stay in place, then lets his hand drop to Nico’s shoulder. Nico’s eyes are wide and dark.

“Let’s go fight,” Percy says, and his voice is hoarse.

\--

As it turns out, finding a 50-foot sea monster isn’t that difficult. Percy follows the pull of the ocean, and they barely see the water before a giant form crashes up from the waves, up and then back in. 

They have enough time to catch sight of a monstrous form, sleek and slim, like a snake. Except that, from tip to tail, the monster was covered with silver spines. Even from the distance, they look razor sharp.

“Hey, Percy,” Nico says, shifting closer so that Percy can hear him over the win. “I remembered what monster Perseus was fighting now.”

Percy swallows. “Yeah, thanks Nico.”

“Now you can be just like him.”

Percy turns his head so that he can see Nico out of the corner of his eye. “I think I could survive without that dubious honor.”

Nico’s arms tighten around his waist. “You’ll survive with it too, don’t worry.”

Percy has to crane his head far enough around that it actually hurts, but he meets Nico’s eyes. “How could I worry? I have you helping me.”

It’s worth it to see the way that Nico’s eyes light up.

Percy turns back to face the sea. That spiked tail comes up again, and slaps the water like a whale. It sends a tidal wave up onto the shore, crashing down on the beach in a crest that’s almost 20 feet high. To Percy’s shock and amazement, he sees at least two surfers riding the crest, and he shake his head.

“Are we doing this thing?” He calls to Annabeth. She raises her bone knife in anwer, face set.

“I’m going to leave Blackjack to you,” Percy tells Nico. “As soon as we get to the ocean. It’s the only way we can both fight.”

“Are you sure?” Nico asks.

“Of course. I trust you. Besides, Blackjack’s good. Right?”

Blackjack whickers back sometime impolite. Percy digs his heels into Blackjack’s side. “You’ve been spending too much time with Arion. You’re going to help Nico though, right?”

:Yes, boss.: 

Percy pats Blackjack’s neck. “Thanks. Alright, let’s go!” He raises his own sword for victory, a signal to Annabeth. They surge forward together. Behind him, Percy can feel Nico shift around, getting something out of his pack. When Percy spares him a glance, he can see that it’s his death stick thing, the orb at the end glowing a fierce blue.

The spray of sea air hits them as soon as they go over the ocean, and Percy’s sense go into overdrive. He can almost sense the monster below them, the shifts in the currents, and the certainty of his own location in the world that comes with being on the water.

“Good luck,” he tells Nico, swinging his legs over Blackjack’s flank, settling both legs in front of the left wing joint.. 

“Don’t do anything stupid.” Nico says, drawing his sword.

Percy grins. “I’ll do my best,” he says, and drops off Blackjack’s back, straight into the open water.

\--

The shock of water is a relief. Percy can feel everything, hear everything. He feels like he could take on the entire Roman army. Seriously, he wishes he could put the ocean into a bottle and always feel like this.

He pulls the water too him, around him, and he shoots out of the water, riding an inverted whirlpool into the sky. 

There’s no monster. 

Nico and Annabeth both swoop low, so that they can hover near him. Percy is pleased to see that, while Nico doesn’t exactly look comfortable, Blackjack is still behaving himself.

“So, where did the monster go?” Nico asks, scanning the water below Percy.

“Um,” Percy says. “I’m not sure.”

He reaches out with his sense, reaching for where the places where there is no water, where the sea is interrupted by a large mass. He frowns. “I don’t… There’s a ship down there, a wreck. More than one, I think. But I don’t feel.”

Then, suddenly. “Move!” He shouts, and it’s more to the Pegasi than to his friends. The pegasi respond in kind, before Nico and Annabeth have a chance to do anything. They pull up, just as Percy cuts the whirlpool out and falls directly down. The sea catches him as that furious tail whips out right where they had been. 

“I found it!” He calls.

“Thanks, Percy!” Annabeth calls, and he can almost feel her sarcasm. It makes him grin, even as the monster surfaces again. The head comes out this time, and it’s head is nothing like a snakes. It’s much worse. It has a head like a giant crocodile, with silver teeth twice the size of Riptide. Percy is really wishing they’d brought more backup.

Annabeth swoops in low, sword drawn. She’s fast, and the sword cuts deep into the monsters hide, just under the terrible jaw. The creature roars and snaps at her, sand spilling out of the wound. But it’s not a fatal blow, and Annabeth barely manages to avoid it’s jaws. 

Percy manages to get in close enough to make a few slashes. His misjudges the distance the first time as the monster pulls away to go after Annabeth, so his sword just skids off it’s tough skin. His second pass makes a deep gouge, and the sand spills into the ocean below him, churning with the waves. 

“Hah!” He yells, triumphant, then he has to duck beneath the waves as the stupid thing thrashes again and he nearly gets hit with one of those lethal spikes.

When he comes back up, Nico is coming at it from the left, and Annabeth is waving her arms at the thing from the right. Most of it’s attention is on Annabeth again, clearly viewing her as the bigger threat, since she’d already hurt it once.

It’s a mistake. Nico comes up on Blackjack and swoops so low that Percy worries he’ll fall off. It works though, and Nico’s sword bites deep into the monster’s eye. 

“That’s for Hazel, you son of a bitch!” Percy hears, and he grins.

Except that the problem with sea snakes is that they have both ends, and both ends are dangerous. It’s tail whips around, a mess of silver spikes. It takes a swipe at Nico, but Percy gets there first, pulling at the water in a great tidal wave the pushes Nico back. 

It doesn’t stop the tail though, just slows it down. When the wall of water falls, Nico is soaking wet and bleeding from a cut on his shoulder.

Percy ducks under the water again, and he goes deep this time. He can tell that pressure is building above him, but he can barely feel it. He positions himself below the thing when he hits the bottom, and points his sword above him.

“There can only be one!” He shouts, and it emerges as bubbles. He likes to think that somewhere, a mermaid will hear those bubbles and be really confused. Then he kicks off the bottom and propels himself up with the water. He hits the monster’s scaley underside with an impact that drives his sword in up to the hilt.

He pulls back immediately, and stabs again, then pulls away. 

When he comes back this time, Annabeth is taking another swipe at it’s skin, coming up on the side Nico blinded. She lands another two blows then has to pull back. Nico is there on the other side, ducking in as soon as she pulls away while the monsters attention is elsewhere. Percy waves at them both, shooing them back.

They work like they’ve rehearsed this, both of them pulling their pegasi back without thinking about it, going far out of reach. The monster doesn’t like that, pulling itself further out of the water and giving Percy a broader target.

Percy pulls up his whirlpool again and rides it close. When he’s only five feet away, he launches himself at the creature like a shot from a canon. He holds Riptide in front of his with both hands and drives it directly into the sleek skin, more stab than slice. 

He tries to catch hold to it’s body with his feet, using his sword as a bracing point. The monster’s body is slick like an eel, not scaley, like he would have thought, and his feet can’t find purchase. The creature thrashes under him, and violent twist rips Riptide from his hands. His head hits the monster’s rock hard body as he tries to keep hold, and sends sparks through his vision.

He goes flying, momentarily stunned by the impact. His sword is still embedded in the monster’s side, and Percy can head Nico and Annabeth yelling his name. 

He sinks slowly, still able to breathe but too dazed to move. His whole body aches with the impact, and he takes in deep gulps of water that he breathes like air. It refreshes him, bringing movement to his limbs as he tries to pull himself together. 

The ocean floor moves beneath him, a tremor like an earthquake, only wrong. Percy knows earthquakes, knows what they feel like in his bones. It was part of his father’s legacy, a knowledge he understood like the sea and this isn’t an earthquake.

Then the wreckage of a sunken ship flares up in front of him, lit with the spirits of the dead, and Percy understands. It’s Nico.

He tries again to pull himself together, drawing on the ocean. His friend need him.

He check his pockets, but Riptide isn’t there yet. It’ll take at least another minute to get back. Taking another deep lungful of salt water, Percy rises to the surface. The sea monster is writhing in pain as ghosts swarm it’s body, while Annabeth and Nico fly around it, inflicting additional damage.

It hurt to move, to call on his powers, but Percy pulls the whirlpool to him again and pushes himself above the sea level, making sure that the others can see him.

Annabeth whoops when she seems him crest the wave, and Nico raises his scepter in a salute. The orb on the top is a fiery red, and it makes the ghosts surge forward again.

The monster is leaking sand like a shitty beanbag chair now, the water frothing in murky waves beneath it. But they need to get closer to finish it. Percy checks again. Still no Riptide. 

Nico and Annabeth seem to understand as well, but neither of them can get the right angle on their pegasi. Percy knows how this has to go. 

Then Annabeth underestimates her next swing and ends up too close to the monster. When her sword cuts into the creature's skin, it’s resulting thrash hits her. Percy can see a flash of silver and thinks she may have gotten hit by a spike, but the monster’s body is in the way. Then Porkpie is pulling up, and Annabeth isn’t on his back.

“No!” Percy yells, already going for the waves, ready to dive under. But Nico gets there first, swerving between it’s spikes to dive close to the water. He’s holding his sword and sceptar in the same hand, hanging onto Blackjack with just his legs. Percy loses sight of him too, and for a moment, he can’t breathe, can’t think, because Nico and Annabeth are gone, lost- and then Nico pulls up, and Annabeth is sitting behind him, wet but alive. Her left leg is bleeding badly, the pant leg gashed through to expose the wound.

Percy whoops, and, out of reflex, reaches for his pocket. Riptide is there now, and he pulls it without thinking. The monster is still distracted by the ghost soldiers, and seems to think that it’s knocked them all out. Nico and Annabeth are sticking to it’s blind side, and Percy knows this is the best chance he’s going to get. 

He dives under, like he had before, but this is going to harder to aim. When he shoots up this time, he’s under the thing’s jaw, sword above his head. The impact this time travels through his whole body. It feels like he’s dislocated both of his shoulders, but sand is pouring out of the puncture, and it burns like acid where it touches him. He pulls back, and, still a bit concussed, misjudges. The monster is half dissolved, but when it’s jaw hits him in the chest, it’s still enough to knock him flying.

He closes his eyes, expecting to his the water again. Instead, he’s caught by something cool and somehow wrong. It’s one of Nico’s ghosts, and it drops him into the waiting Porkpie with a salute. Percy salutes back weakly and slumps over Porkpie’s neck. It’s over.

Nico and Annabeth fly closer to him, both still riding Blackjack.

“Are you ok?” Annabeth asks, as though her leg isn’t still dripping blood. Nico isn’t much better, blood running down his arm and staining the staff of the scepter. From this close, Percy can see that Annabeth’s hand is red with blood from where Nico must have grabbed her.

Percy gives them a dazed smile. “Just peachy,” he says.

Annabeth laughs, but it’s tired. “I’m glad.”

“Yeah, it’s great. Can we get on the land now?” Nico asks, eyeing the air around them like it’s going to start attacking him,

Percy is about to agree when the a sudden sound stops him. It’s not right for this setting, and it’s so jarring that it takes him a moment to figure out that it’s applause. He looks around wildly, reaching for Riptide. Beside him, Nico and Annabeth raise their swords.

It’s a woman, standing on the shore many feet below them, and too far away for them to have heard her applause by any natural means. She has a microphone in her hands, though it doesn't seem to attached to anything. 

“That was great!” She calls, voice amplified and too clear. Percy has a sudden sense of deep foreboding. “Just what I would have expected from you three!”

Percy exchanged worried looks with the other two, and they look as confused as he feels. Nico raises his staff, clearly going to summon more ghosts, but the woman makes a tsking noise.

“None of that now! I have such plans for us!”

And then everything goes dark.


	3. Walls Come Down (doors do not)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ended up being longer then expected, so there will be a 4th part after this.

Percy wakes up to see Annabeth and Nico both leaning over him. Annabeth is on his right, Nico on the right. They’re heads are close enough that Nico’s messy black hair brushes Annabeth’s blonde curls. 

“I was right,” he mumbles, and they both look relieved.

“Right about what?” Annabeth asks.

“It’s totally hot.”

Nico looks baffled, but Annabeth grins and hits him very lightly in the shoulder. When Percy stirs, they both move aside so he can sit up. Annabeth takes his arm to help him get himself into a sitting position.

“Where are we?” They’re in what looks like a nice hotel room, with two beds, a television on the wall and a thick orange carpet on the floor. The bedspreads are checked grey and orange. Percy is spread out on the far right bed, with Nico and Annabeth perched at his sides. There’s a pillow under his head, and when he gets himself up, Nico moves it so that it supports his back. 

“I don’t know. I woke up about an hour ago, Annabeth about half an hour ago,” Nico says. “There were some bandages in the corner, and some nectar in the fridge. I did the best I could.”

Belatedly, Percy notices that Annabeth’s left pant leg has been cut away, and she has bandages running from mid thigh to a bit below her knee. Nico is wearing another of the spare Camp Half-blood shirts, and Percy can see the white of a bandage wrapping down his arm. When Percy touches his head, he finds that there is a bandage over his hair.

“What happened?” 

Annabeth frowns. “I think someone grabbed us. It had to be a goddess, but it wasn’t one I recognize. Not one of the 12. No one has come in since we got here.” She looks at Nico, “Right?”

Nico nods, and moves over to the other bed. He curls up on it, bringing his legs up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. “I can’t shadow travel either.” The words send a chill down Percy’s spine. Without shadow travel, they don’t have a way to escape. The room may look like a hotel, but there are no doors, no windows, not even any air vents. They’re trapped. “Not that I would have left you!” Nico hastens to add. “I just had to check.”

Percy holds up a hand, hoping to slow Nico’s defense. “It didn’t even occur to me. Of course you wouldn’t leave us.”

The sentiment seems to surprise Nico, and he looks at Annabeth, like he needs a confirmation. Annabeth smiles at him. Percy reaches out and takes her hand. He kind of wants to take Nico’s too, to know that if even if they’re trapped, at least their together. But Nico has ‘don’t touch’ written in every line of his body, even if he weren’t too far away for Percy to reach. He’s always too far away for Percy to reach.

Something has changed in their relationship, recently. Something about the knowledge that the three of them had survived Tartarus. Something about the way the three of them fought together, effortlessly, easily. Percy isn’t sure what it means, but he wants Nico closer. And, knowing how Nico probably still feels about him, it’s not going to happen.

Annabeth squeezes his hand. “It’s ok. We’ll get out of here.”

Perc smiles at her. “I know.” He has good people with him. He trusts them.

He opens his mouth to say more, to say something to make Annabeth look less like she needs to reassure him, to make Nico look less like he’s going to bolt at any second, but he doesn’t get a chance.

The door, the door that literally was not there five second ago, slams open. The woman they had seen on the beach strides in.

“Hi, guys!” She says, her voice exuberant. “Wow, it is such an honor to have you here!”

Percy exchanges looks with Nico and Annabeth. They all stay silent. The woman looks at them expectantly. The door behind her has already disappeared. The woman has dark hair that’s pulled back into a long ponytail. She looks like an Olympic runner, with dark tennis shoes, tight running pants, and a sporty, skin tight tank top. There’s writing on the tanktop, but Percy can’t read them. He thinks is says “Turd poo it!” But that makes no sense. She has a grey suit jacket pulled over the thank top, and she’s still carrying a cordless micorphone in her hands.

Finally, Annabeth breaks the silence. “Hello. Do you know who has us here?”

The woman grins. “I do, of course! I just had to talk to you. The three who survived Tartarus. It’s amazing! I just had to interview you.”

She grabs a chair, which Percy is pretty sure also wan’t in the room a few second ago, and pulls it close, taking a seat. “So, tell me. What do you think was the hardest part about your trip through Tartarus. Please, don’t spare any details.” She sticks her microphone in Nico’s shocked face. He stares at her with wide eyes, face gone even more pale than usual. Now Percy is really wishing that Nico were over there by him and Annabeth.”

“Who are you?” Percy demands, angry. He tries to push himself further up in the bed and almost falls back. Annabeth steadies him. The woman turns, sticking her microphone in his face instead.

“I’m supposed to be the one asking questions,” she says, and her face is stormy now, her smile gone. And then, all of a sudden, it’s back again. “But I suppose it was very rude of my not to introduce myself to you. I’m just such a fan, you see! I got too excited about getting to interview you. I am the goddess of victory! I am-”

“Nike.” Annabeth finishes for her.

“Very good!” The goddess crows, looking delighted. “Yes, I knew you would be just as smart as they said. You couldn’t have gotten the Athena Parthenos otherwise. Oh! I just have to interview you about that as well. How did you defeat Arachne? It must have been a spectacular victory. I must-”

“Nike?” Percy cuts in. “What, like the shoe?”

Now that he’s looking for it, he can see the bright, signature check on her sneakers, and again on her tank top. He squints at the words on her tank top, and on closer inspection it says “Just do it!” Yeah, that makes more sense.

Nike tosses her ponytail back. “Yes, of course! My mortal worshippers. I am one of the few gods still worshipped in modern times.” She grins, all teeth. “It has made me strong.”

“That’s not-” Percy begins, but Annabeth squeezes that hand she holds. Hard. Well, Percy can take a hint. He stops talking. 

“So,” and now Nike rounds on Percy. “You defeated both Kronos and Gaia. What do you think was the hardest part? I notice that you still have that scar. Why don’t you start there?” 

Percy’s hand goes immediately to the thin scar that cuts over his right eye. 

“Why don’t you tell us about yourself?” Annabeth cuts in. “When will you let us go?”

Nike laughs. “Well, never, of course! First, you three will tell you all about your victories, starting with your time in Tartarus. Then, well, then you will be my greatest trophies!”

“You sent the sea serpent.” Nico says, and his voice is cold as ice. 

“Well, of course I did! I can’t just wander into Camp Half-blood for an interview, now can I? I knew that you three could handle it! It was a great fight, wasn’t it? Oh, I love to see the three of you fight. Your victories are so grand!”

“Hazel almost died!” Nico yells, furious. He lunges at her, hands empty, but Nike simply moves out of his way, fast as a snake.

“Oh, come on! I know you’re better than that!” She says, and she sounds truly disappointed in him. Nico snarls at her, and this time she backhands him hard enough to send him sprawling across the floor.

“Nico!” Percy shouts, getting to his feet. He draw Riptide and uncaps it and points it at Nike. Then he looks down. In his hand is a pen, the cap off, and clearly not transformed into a sword. He shakes it. Then, since it doesn’t look like Nike is going to attack him, he puts the cap back on and then tries to take it off again. He’s still holding what looks like a regular pen.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” He yells, furious. In a fit of temper, he hurls the pen at one of the far walls. It clatters to the ground, disappearing in the thick orange carpet. It remains a pen.

“Didn’t I mention?” Nike asks sweetly. “This room of mine blocks magic. Isn’t it delightful?”

Percy snarls at her, still feeling the blood hot in his veins. 

“What are you going to do with us?” Annabeth asks. She’s risen to her feet and is standing at Percy’s side, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

“Well, as soon as you’ve all healed, I’ve assembled some amazing monsters for you three to fight! I just have to witness some of your victories for myself. Oh, I just can’t wait!” She claps her hands together, delighted. “And, of course, I just have to hear about your time in Tartarus. I wish you could understand how amazing it is that the three of you made it. It’s never been done before! Never! Oh, it’s so amazing. I’m just so glad you’re all here!” She bounces a little on her feet. “Oh, listen to me, freaking out like a little girl. I should let you three get some rest. You’re probably still tired from your time with the cetus. Good night!”

She pulls the door open and steps through with a last little wave, and then the door disappears behind. All three of them rush to where it was. Annabeth runs quick fingers over the places where seems would be, while Percy and Nico pound on it, trying to get through.

Nico is the first to give up, putting his back to the wall and sliding down. He wraps his arms around his knees. “It’s hopeless,” he whispers, and his voice is terrible, broken. “We’re trapped.”

Annabeth goes to Nico’s side without thought, her slight limp more pronounced with exhaustion. She slips down the wall to sit beside Nico, being careful to keep her distance. 

“We’ll figure something out,” she says, comforting. Percy wants to sit with them so bad that it is a physical ache. He staggers over to them, the adrenaline from the fight draining away again, leaving him weak and aching. His head pounds.

“You idiot,” Annabeth says, and suddenly she’s at his elbow, supporting him. “You should get back in bed.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Percy grumbles, mostly joking. He goes to the wall where Nico is sitting, pale and blank-eyed. He sits closer than Annabeth had, out of some crazy sense of daring, and he hopes that Nico won’t push him away. His ribs protest his position on the floor, and his head is throbbing, but he grits his teeth and ignores it.

Annabeth sighs and settles down at his side, taking his hand. He half wants her to let go, not to rub their relationship in Nico’s face when Nico has such a crush on Annabeth, but he doesn’t want to give up his own source of strength, so he keeps hold.

“It’ll be ok,” he tells Nico. Then he feels stupid. What a useless thing to say.

“We’re not,” Nico replies, and his voice is far away. He stares down at the ground like he can’t see it. “This room is too small. There’s no food. How will we eat?”

“I think that there’s food in the mini-” Percy begins, and Nico doesn’t even seems to hear him.

“I don’t even have any seeds with me today, that was stupid, and how would that help you? You can’t any seeds, you’d die, you’d be stuck. And there’s not enough air, gods this room is so small!”

It hits Percy like a shock of cold water, what it is that Nico is thinking. What has him so shaken. He’s thinking of the giants, of being trapped in a clay jar with no hope of escaping by his own power. 

Percy turns and meets Annabeth eyes, and her face is as horrified as he feels. He doesn’t know how to help this. 

“Nico,” Annabeth says, soft. She moves so that she is closer to Nico, almost in front of Percy. She doesn’t move in front of Nico though, which is smart. It would make him feel more boxed in. “Nico, it will be ok. We’ll be fine.”

Nico is just moving his head back and forth, a silent denial. It makes Percy’s chest ache, below the painful stab of his injured ribs. He hates feeling this useless. He puts a hand out to touch Nico’s arm, and Nico jerks away. “Don’t touch me!”

Percy draws back, cursing himself.

“No one is touching you, Nico,” he says softly. “I won’t do it again, I’m sorry.”

Nico shakes his head again, but it seems less distant. 

Annabeth takes up the baton. “Nico, Percy and I are both here. All three of us are in this together. Do you understand me?”

Slowly, so slowly it puts Percy’s teeth on edge, Nico nods.

“We’re going to get out of here,” Percy says. His voice is deep and serious, and something in it makes Nico look up, meeting his eyes. Nico’s face is open and vulnerable, and Percy wants him to feel better, to look less hopeless. “I promise.”

He regrets the words as soon as they leave his mouth, and he doesn't need Annabeth squeeze of his hand to tell him that he messed up. Nico’s face shutters, and he looks away. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” 

Nico gets to his feet, moving like he’s going to storm out somewhere. He walks into the shadowed corner and closes his eyes. His hands are curled into fists, his jaw clenched so hard that it looks painful. He want to leave, Percy understands. If he were able to, he would be walking out through the shadows, just like he does every time Percy tries to discuss something more than the weather.

It makes him angry.

He clenches his hands, and only Annabeth’s sharp gasp stops him from saying something aloud to Nico. He wants to shout, to make Nico listen, to understand.

But so many things make him angry anymore, more than they ever did before Tartarus. It unlocked something in him, and sometimes he can still feel that terrible deep pull of controlling the poison, the knowledge that he can manipulate things that should not be touched. It’s a part of himself he never wanted to know existed, and sometimes it feels too close to the surface to bear.

He puts his head back against the wall, eyes closed. He lets go of Annabeth’s hand, but she doesn’t release him. Slowly, Percy breathes, until the need to just shake Nico until the message got through his thick skull goes away.

Then Percy tries to get to his feet, because he can’t talk to Nico from the floor. 

He doesn’t make it all the way up. His ribs give a painful shock and he gasps, almost falling. Annabeth grabs his arm, but it’s not enough. His actions against Nike, useless as they were, have strained him. The room is spinning again, and he’s going to fall. 

Then someone is on his other side, and it’s Nico, it has to be Nico, there’s no one else in the room. For a moment, Percy doubts even that. It seems more likely that someone else has come into this sealed off room than that Nico is willing touching him.

But when he looks to the side, he sees familiar dark hair. Nico shoots him a quick look from under his fringe and Percy thinks he sees concern in those dark eyes. He gives Nico a small smile, and Nico looks away.

Nico and Annabeth help him to the bed again, and he feels like a weakling when Nico moves the pillow so that it will be under his head, when Annabeth has to pull his feet up onto the bed. He draws the line when Annabeth tries to pull the blankets up over him.

“I’m fine!” he snaps, but it’s belied by the fact that he can’t seem to lift his head.

Annabeth makes a rude noise. “Of course you are.”

Nico looks about ready to scuttle off into a dark corner, so Percy grabs his arm. Nico turns to look at him, eyes so wide and startled that Percy is really starting to wonder how many people have touched him since Bianca died.

“Do you ever touch people?” he asks, before he can stop himself. Apparently blows to the head can interfere with brain-to-mouth filters. Not that his was ever much good to begin with.

Nico goes stiff but, inexplicably, doesn’t pull his arms free. “People don’t touch me.”

Feeling loopy and sad and daring, Percy lets his grip on Nico’s arm slide down until his hand is wrapped around Nico’s slim wrist. His fingers can encircle it easily. Nico still hasn’t pulled away, staring down at him with something Percy can’t name in his dark eyes. It’s like surprise, but not quite.

Gently, in case Nico startles, Percy pulls Nico down onto the bed beside him so that Nico is sitting, one leg curled under him, the other hanging off the side of the bed. Then Percy smiles. “Don’t go away.”

Percy rolls his head over on his neck. It still feels heavy and the thought occurs to him, silly enough to make him laugh a little, that maybe it is full of seaweed. He looks up at Annabeth, so still beside the bed. She’d been waiting for him to finish with Nico. She’s such a good girlfriend.

“What is it?” she asks at his soft chuckle. Percy tugs at her arm as well, until she sits on his other side. It’s like how he woke up, and it’s comforting.

“Seaweed brain,” he says, laughing again. Annabeth looks over his head, and even though he can’t see it, he just knows she’s exchanging a Look with Nico. With a capital L.

“That’s you, stupid,” she replies, her voice full of concerned affection.

Percy closes his eyes. “Of course it is,” he replies with conviction.

He can feel both of them on either side of him. It’s nice. One hand wrapped around each of them, Percy falls asleep.

\--

Percy is surprised to wake up and find that Nico hasn’t moved away. He’s slumped half off the bed, both legs dangling over the edge while his arm is still in Percy’s grasp. Sometime since Percy had fallen asleep, Nico had drifted sideways. His shoulder is digging into Percy’s side, his head resting on Percy’s stomach.

On his other side, Annabeth is awake, lying on her back and staring up at the ceiling. She’s pressed along on side, a warm and solid weight. When he shifts, she turns to look at him.

“Awake again?” she whispers, and Percy just nods. His head feels clearer now, but his ribs are still hurting.

“How long has he been out?” Percy asks, nodding at Nico. Nico, as if sensing them, shifts slightly, pushing his face more into Percy’s belly. Percy smiles, feeling stupidly affectionate.

“Just after you fell asleep,” Annabeth replies. “I don’t think he’s been sleeping much.”

Percy frowns. He’s pretty sure that she’s right.

“I hadn’t thought about what it must have been like in that jar,” Percy says softly. He carefully releases Nico’s arm and moves the hand to the boy’s shoulder, protective. Nico grumbles something in his sleep and turns into Percy more, his face almost completely hidden.

Annabeth hums agreement, but doesn’t reply. Perct turns his head back to look at her, and sees that she is looking at Nico.

“What are you thinking about?” he asks her.

“Lots of things. How to get out of here. What Nike wants. What Nico wants.” She meets Percy’s eyes. “What I want.”

Percy smiles softly. “And what do you want?”

Annabeth doesn’t return his smile, her grey eyes are dark and serious. “I don’t want to lose you.”

Percy raises their clasped hands to his lips and presses a gentle kiss to her knuckles. “You won’t. I told you, wise girl, I won’t let us get separated again.”

Annabeth smiles at him. “I love you.”

Percy feels his heart flip over. It’s not something they say to one another often. He knows, of course he knows, but she doesn’t say it much. Not seriously. “I love you too.” 

Annabeth separates their fingers to touch his jaw. They’re at the wrong angle for a kiss, and he doesn’t want to dislodge Nico, so he just smiles at her. Annabeth smiles back and runs her fingers up to card through his hair. It’s soothing, nice. Between one breath and the next, Percy falls asleep again.

\--

This time, Percy wakes up feeling refreshed and clear-headed. He wakes up with the knowledge that he won’t be falling back asleep in another few minutes.

There’s no way of telling how much time has passed in this lit, unchanging room, but he feels as though he’s slept through what could be considered ‘night’ and is not waking up in the ‘day.’

Annabeth is asleep this time, curled into his side, her head pillowed on his chest. He looks around for Nico and sees that the boy is tossing fitfully on the other bed. The blanket is pulled almost up over his head, but Percy can still see restless movement underneath the cover. When he catches a brief glimpse of Nico’s face before it turns away, he can make out an unhappy twist to Nico’s features.

Sighing, Percy runs careful fingers through Annabeth’s hair. She nudges into his hand but doesn’t wake up. Carefully, trying not to wake her, Percy eases out from under the blankets. Annabeth makes an unhappy little whine that makes him want to crawl back into bed, back into her arms, but he just tugs that blanket over her shoulders carefully, waiting for her to settle. 

That done, he gets up to examine the room. A glance at his watch shows him, to his irritation, that it was frozen at what he can only guess is the time that Nike grabbed them. He hopes that it isn’t permanently broken- watches that could survive deep ocean dives weren’t cheap.

Percy runs a frustrated hand through his hair, and heads over to where the door had been. Calmer now, he runs his fingers over where he remembered the seams to be. Annabeth had tried the same, with no result, but he can’t not try.

He can’t see anything, and he feels no difference underneath his fingertips. After several minutes of feeling around the wall and getting nothing, he aims a halfhearted kick at the wall, more to vent his frustration than to achieve anything. He keeps the blow soft through, so as not to wake the other two.

That done, Percy begins to feel his way around the room by touch. He’s not sure what he’s looking for, or how he’ll know when he finds it, but he can’t do nothing.

“I already tried that,” comes a soft voice. Percy jumps, and looks over to see Nico sitting up in his bed.

“Did I wake you?” Percy asks.

Nico shakes his head. “No, it’s fine. I- it was probably better to wake up anyway.”

Well, Percy knows what that means. 

“Want to help me look?” he asks.

“It won’t do any good.”

“It will make me feel better.”

Nico shrugs. “I guess.” He clambers over to where Percy is standing and feels along the walls with him. Percy gets to the ground to examine the carpet.

“What are you doing?” Nico demands, backing up so quickly he almost falls.

“Shh!” Percy hisses, staring up at Nico. “Annabeth is still sleeping.”

“Why are you on the floor?” Nico demands, face going bright red. At least he’s being quieter. “Get up!”

“Dude!” Percy says, indignant. “Calm down! I’m just trying to look at the carpet. It might lift up.” He presses the places where it meets the wall, trying to get his fingers under it. 

“Oh,” Nico replies. “Of course. I’m going to,” he gestures at the wall behind him. “You know, keep checking. Over here.”

“Good idea,” Percy replies sarcastically. Prying up the carpet isn’t working. He pulls out Riptide from his pocket and clicks it, just in case. Nothing happens. Growing in frustration, he jams the pen down in the corner of the wall, trying to wedge the pen between floor and wall. 

It doesn’t budge. 

Next, he tries grabbing fistfuls of the large carpet and pulling. He can’t even yank out individual fibers.  
“Ugh,” Percy says, dropping backwards onto the soft carpet. He stares up at the ceiling, feeling helpless and angry and frustrated.

“I told you so.” Nico’s face appears in Percy’s vision. 

“Yeah, thanks Nico. That helps.”

“Sorry.”

Percy sighs. “No, you did tell me.” He pushes himself up from the floor. “How are you feeling?”

Nico frowns. “Well, we’re trapped. So, on the whole, I would have to say not pretty good.”

“No, I mean your shoulder. Is it ok?”

Nico glances down at his own shoulder, like he had forgotten about it. “Actually, yes. It was killing me yesterday, too.”

Percy scowls at him. “Then why didn’t you say so?”

Nico shrugs. “It wouldn’t have done any good. It’s not like you said anything about your head bothering you.”

Percy glances away, concedeing the point.

“Here, let me look at.”

Nico scowls at him. “No.”

Percy blows out a frustrated breath. “Look, Nico, I know you don’t like me. Whatever. But I’m trying here. I want to help you, and that means helping with each other’s wounds. I know that it wasn’t just Annabeth who helped me yesterday. So, just trust me, ok? Please?”

He can’t look at Nico while he speaks, embarressed. He hates that Nico won’t trust him, won’t even let him close. He hates that Nico doesn’t even want to be his friend after all they’ve been through. So he stares at the ugly orange carpet, waiting for a response.

What he gets is total silence. After a long moment, he dares a glance at Nico, and finds that the boy is staring at the wall. There’s a flush high on his cheeks that Percy suspects might be anger.

Percy sighs. “Just let me make sure it’s not infected or something.”

“You think that I hate you?” Nico asks. His voice is unusually hushed. He sounds brittle, and Percy turns back to him, suddenly unsure.

“Well, yeah. I mean, you and I, we have history. Sometimes it can be hard to work past that. But I’d like to be friends. I’d like to work together.”

Nico’s eyes look unnaturally bright. “You really are an idiot, Percy Jackson.”

“Hey!” Percy says indignantly. “What is that supposed to mean.”

Nico just shakes his head. “It means I don’t hate you. I don’t think I ever did, really.”

Percy can’t help the grin that spreads across his face, and he feels lighter, in spite of their dire circumstances.

“Yeah?” he asks, bouncing on his toes a little.

Nico rolls his eyes, but it looks affectionate. “Yeah.”

“Awesome,” Percy says, with feeling. “Now take your shirt off so I can make sure this isn’t a deathbed confession.”

Nico snorts, but he tugs off his shirt- Percy’s shirt, Percy recalls with another smile- and lets Percy inspect the wound.

\--

Percy and Nico stare down at Nico’s shoulder together. Hesitantly, Percy reaches out, then stops. 

“May I?” He asks, meeting Nico’s eyes. 

“Go ahead, whatever,” Nico replies, looking away.

Percy reaches out and tentatively places his hand over where the cut in Nico’s shoulder had been. His hand covers smooth and unblemished skin.

“How?” Percy asks. He starts when he feels Nico’s hands tentatively in his hair. He can’t look up to see Nico’s face without dislodging the contact.

“Hold still,” Nico commands. He runs his fingers tentatively over Percy’s scalp. “You were banged up pretty bad when we got in here. But it feels fine. You’re feeling better?”

Percy thinks about it. “Yeah.”

Soft and a bit sleepy, Annabeth’s voice comes from the bed. “I’m starting think that this room has healing properties.”

Nico yanks his hands out of Percy’s hair so fast he pulls some strands loose, and Percy winces.

Annabeth is swinging her legs over the side of the bed.

Percy rubs his head and watches as Annabeth stretches. “What makes you say that?”

Annabeth comes over to the two of them. “Well, Nico’s shoulder, for one. My leg is better too.” She shows them where the bandage had been, now unmarked. It looks silly, without the bandage, one pant leg to her ankle, the other cut over her knee.

Coming up to stand beside her, Percy fits his hand over her hip. “And your other?” he trails off, not wanting to mention her other injury, the sad remains of their fight with Gaia.

Annabeth gives him a small smile. “Still there.”

Percy rests his forehead against hers, sympathetic. Annabeth has accepted her limp, and she doesn’t let it hinder her, but Percy thinks it still bothers her, when she won’t let it show.

When he pulls back, he catches sight of Nico, who has both arms wrapped defensively around his middle, staring into the corner.

Percy feels his throat tighten. He doesn’t know how to fix this. This crush on Annabeth that Nico has, Percy doesn’t know how to handle it. He doesn’t want to hurt Nico, but he can’t bear the thought of living his life without her. He takes a step away from her just the same. It’s like he told Nico, they’re all trapped here together. At the very least, Percy can try to not make it worse.

“That’s a good thing, though, right? That we’re healing?”

Annabeth makes a face. “It means that she wants us alive and healthy. From what she said yesterday, I’m thinking that she wants us to do some cage fighting.”

Anger flares up again, impotent and hot. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Percy shouts at their ceiling.

And then the door is swinging open, because seriously, his life sucks.

Nico is the fastest to react, moving towards the newly appeared doorway before Percy has even registered that it’s appeared. Nike is barely inside when Nico is pushing past her. For a moment, Percy is sure that Nico will make it, and his heart is in his throat. Nico will go get help. Nico will save them, like he had come for them at the Doors of Death.

And then Nico is being bounced off the open doorway like a rubber ball. Nike watches idly as he flies past her, lying sprawled on his back and groaning.

Percy and Annabeth move together. Annabeth goes to Nico’s side, making sure that he’s ok, while Percy steps between them and Nike. He raises his fists in a defensive stance. He might not have his sword, but that didn’t mean he was helpless.

Nike smiles at him, and she bounces on her toes. “You guys are just too cute! Oh, this was such a good choice!”

Nico groans faintly in response. Percy risks taking his eyes off of Nike for a moment to glance back. Nico is sitting up now, hand to his head, half leaning on Annabeth’s shoulder. Annabeth is mostly supporting him, but her gaze is fixed on Nike.

“What do you want from us?” she demands. 

Nike laughs. “Oh, you know that, silly! After all, you’re so smart.” She brushes past Percy to sit on the edge of his bed. “So, tell me about Tartarus.”

“Go to hell,” Percy snaps in reply, but Nike just laughs.

“Oh, you are so precious. Here, go sit with your friends.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Percy says, and he can hear Annabeth snort. She stays quiet though, and Percy darts another glance at her. She makes a little motion, beckoning him. Annabeth always seems to know better than him, so Percy goes and sits on Nico’s other side, pressing his shoulder just behind Nico’s shoulder blade so that Nico can lean on him if he needs to.

“What do you want to know?” Annabeth asks, and her voice is calm, level. With Nico between them, Percy can’t take her hand, but he wants to.

Nike leans forward, eyes gleaming. “Tell me about Tartarus. Tell me how you escaped. How did you gain victory over one of the most powerful beings?”

Percy draws in a sharp breath and lets in go in a shaky gust. The memories of Tartarus are not easy ones, not ones he wants to relive. He can see Nico flinch at his side. 

Annabeth, when she speaks, is calm and collected. But Percy knows her well enough to know that it’s not easy for her either. “You don’t want to know about how we defeated Gaia?”

Nike waves an errant hand, like she is brushing away a fly. “We have time for that. I know most of it. But Tartarus,” she says is with a curl in her voice, wrapping her tone around it like it’s some grand prize, “that’s never been done before. Only you three. Tell me.”

Annabeth swallows. “What do you want to know? It’s a,” her voice catches, “It’s a big place.”

“Start at the beginning,” Nike says. “No! Wait! The best part first. No, but that’s spoilers. Oh, I just can’t decide! Tell me your favorite part!”

“It all sucked pretty equally,” Percy snaps, and Annabeth gives him a quelling look.

“Hm,” Nike seems to think about it. Then she points at Nico. “You’re pretty quiet, Ghost King. Tell me your story. Tell me about your victory.”

“It wasn’t much of a victory,” Nico says, sitting up so that he is sitting alone, not resting on Percy or Annabeth. “I escaped to get put in a jar for a week.”

“That’s true,” Nike conceeds. “But, you did escape, didn’t you?”

“I-” Nico falters, glancing to the side. His eyes are sunken in his pale face.

“I’ll tell you a story,” Percy says, standing. He’s tired of sitting at her feet, like a demented child’s storytime. “It’s about a real hero. We wouldn’t have survived without him. His name was Bob.”

Nike’s eyes gleam, and she leans in closer. “I have never heard of this Bob. Was he a demigod?” She grins, at it is bloodthirsty. “Did you sacrifice him for your own victory?”

Percy flinches like it’s a blow, and then Annabeth is standing at his side, their hands intertwined. “He was a titan.”

Nike frowns. “I don’t know of any Titans named Bob. If you’re lying to me-”

Nico stands to back on Percy’s other side. “It’s the truth. Bob was my, my friend. Too. My friend too.”

Percy reaches out and gently touches Nico’s wrist. He can’t take Nico’s hand like he can Annabeth’s, but he hopes he can convey that same sense of comfort.

“Very well, then. Tell me of Bob.”

\--

The story is exhausting, even with Percy and Annabeth trade off. The memories are Tartarus are visceral and real, they linger in the mind and surge forward when they speak of it. The memories cling like burs, digging deep under the skin, to the point that Percy has to wonder if there is something in Tartarus that sticks to them refusing to let them go unscathed.

At the end of it, Annabeth pleads exhaustion, and Nike, pleased by the way the story had gone, pleased by Bob’s death, agrees. She leaves with a promise to be back soon, and Annabeth slumps down onto the bed when she’s gone. 

Percy sits down next to her, rubbing her back soothingly. “You were great.”

To his surprise, Nico joins them on the bed, curling his legs under him like small cat. He’s out of touching distance, but still, he’s there.

“Thank you, Annabeth,” he says softly.

Annabeth gives him a warm smile. “Bob deserved to have his story told.”

“He was a good person- ah, Titan,” Nico agrees. “I was- it sucks. What happened.”

Percy lets his head drop onto Annabeth’s shoulder. “You were a better friend to him then I was ever was.”

Annabeth reaches up to card slim fingers through his hair. “It wasn’t your fault, Percy.”

Percy snorts. It’s an old argument. “I never even tried to see what happened to him.”

Percy almost jumps out of his skin when a cold hand that isn’t Annabeth’s touches his arm. Nico pulls back when Percy jumps, but after a moment, he shifts closer. “It really wasn’t. I was around him a lot more than you were.” He snorts, but there’s no humor in it. “It’s not like you could have just dropped into the Underworld for a social visit with the janitor.”

Percy lifts his head up and looks at Nico. “I should at least have visited you.”

Nico goes totally, perfectly still. He could be carved from marble, if it weren’t for the dark circles under his eyes, the way that Percy’s bright shirt hung off his too-small frame. Percy can’t drop Nico’s eyes, can’t look away.

And then Nico is on his feet, pushing his hands through his hair and gripping like he wants to rip it out. He storms over to the corner, heading for the shadows like he always does when he wants to escape, to get away. 

“Gods, Percy,” Nico says, rounding on him. His voice is wrecked. “Don’t fucking say thing like that!”

“Like, what?” Percy looks to Annabeth, totally lost. Annabeth is still watching Nico, quiet.

“Why do always have to be like that?” Nico demands. “Why are you always so,” he gestures are Percy, “so…”

“So, what?” Percy asks, tentatively.

“So stupid!” Nico shouts, and throws himself onto the other bed, facing away from them. 

Percy gets up, intending to go to Nico’s side and apologize for whatever he had said that was so upsetting, but Annabeth puts her hand on his shoulder. “Let me,” she says softly. Percy wavers. He wants to be able to fix this himself. But then, Annabeth has always been better at such things then he is. 

Annabeth pads over to Nico’s bed and perches delicately on the side. After a long moment in which Nico doesn’t acknowledge her presence at all, she puts a hand on his shoulder.

Nico shrugs her hand off.

Annabeth sighs, and says something that Percy can’t hear. Whatever it is, it makes Nico look at her, startled. Nico looks at Percy, then back to Annabeth. He says something to her that Percy can’t make out. Annabeth shakes her head, then gestures to the corner.

Sighing, looking tired and defeated, Nico gets up, Annabeth behind him. When Annabeth sees Percy looking, she makes little shooing motions with her hands.

Percy rolls his eyes, but lies down on the bed while Annabeth and Nico sit on the floor, backs against the wall. 

The room is pretty spacious, for a glorified prison cell, and from this distance, Percy can’t hear what Nico and Annabeth are whispering to one another. At one point, he hears Nico say “No, it’s nothing!” but Annabeth shushes him.

Bored, Percy stares up at the ceiling, trying to make plans to escape. Nothing good comes to mind. He keeps getting distracted by his growing hunger, his curiosity over what Annabeth and Nico are talking about, and his anger against the implacable and uncaring goddess who had taken them.

He’s gotten as far as trying to dig a hole in the wall with his belt buckle when he feels Annabeth’s hand on his shoulder. When he looks over, he can see that Nico is sitting on the edge of the other bed, face red, but looking a bit more calm.

“What did you talk about?” Percy asks, swinging his feet over to the floor.

Annabeth waves a hand. “You know. Things.”

Percy gives her a dirty look, but he knows better than to try and get information out of her when she uses that tone. He flops back onto the bed instead. “I’m so hungry!”

Annabeth’s hand goes to her stomach. “So am I. But she took our packs as well.”

“I think I might-” Nico trails off, rumaging in the pockets of his dark pants. He comes out with a very abused looking apple, some crushed grapes and half of the power bar Annabeth had given him when they left the cave. “Oh. I thought there was more.”

He looks so dejected that Percy wants to smile. “It’s fine. It’s more than either of us thought to bring.”

“We can split the apple though.” Nico holds it out.

Percy hesitates. “It’s not, you know, underworld food, is it?”

Nico makes a rude noise. “No, don’t be dumb. I wouldn’t give that to you two.”

“Great! I would hate to be stuck down there.” Oh shit. “No offense! I’m sure that it’s really roomy. And, ah, quiet?”

Nico laughs, and the sound is starting to sound more natural. “None taken! It’s not to most people’s tastes, I think. If I had somewhere else to live, I wouldn’t be there much myself, to tell the truth.”

Percy tenses. “You know you’re always welcome at Camp Half-blood, Nico. You know that.”

Nico stops laughing. “Do I?” He picks at the crushed grapes in his hands, fishing for the seeds.

“Don’t be stupid, Nico,” Percy snaps. 

“Percy!” Annabeth says reprovingly.

“What? No, he is.” Percy turns back to Nico. “If he can’t tell that the entire camp owes him their life, that we care about him, then he really is an idoit.”

Nico shakes his head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m at outcast- I always will be.”

“Because you never stay in one place long enough. Hazel would do anything for you. So would Jason. And if you don’t know that Annabeth and I would die for you-”

“Don’t say that!” Nico shouts, suddenly on his feet. He’s gone pale. “Don’t you dare!”

Percy leans back, startled and almost scared. He thinks that if Nico has his blade on him, it would be out and ready. Then, suddenly, he’s angry, almost as angry as Nico. He gets to his feet as well, ignoring Annabeth tugging on his arm.

“Don’t what? Don’t talk about the fact that we care about you? About the fact that we worry? Gods, Nico, what do you think it’s like for us when no one has seen for months at a time? We only have Hazel’s word that you aren’t dead! How hard is it to stop by once a week and say ‘Hey, I’m not dead, thanks for worrying,’?”

Nico shakes his head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Gods, the way people look at me. They’re terrified of me!”

“I’m not talking about other people, Nico! I’m talking about me! About your friends!”

“I don’t have any friends.”

Percy takes a step forward, furious. “You’re wrong. You have Hazel, and Jason. You have Annabeth. You have me! Gods, I know you probably don’t want it, but I will always, always have your back.” He takes another step forward, directly into Nico’s space. “I would die for you, and if you haven’t figured that out by now-”

Nico makes an enraged noise, and for a second, Percy is sure that Nico is going to punch him. Then Nico grabs Percy by the collar of his shirt, tugs him down and kisses him.

Percy is so shocked that he stops abruptly. His hands flail out, unsure. His eyes are still open, so he can see the way that Nico’s eye are squeezed shut. It’s not much of a kiss, Nico has just rammed his lips against Percy’s. His lips are chapped and Percy has no idea what is happening.

Then Nico pushes him away, so hard that he stumbles, almost falling.

Nico just stares at him, wide-eyed. Then he goes suddenly pale, his hands shaking. “Oh, Gods.”

Percy raises his own hand to touch his mouth. “What?” he says, soft. “Nico?” He puts out a hand, gods, he’s so confused right now, and Nico flinches, like he think Percy will hit him. “Nico?” Percy reapats. Nico takes a step back, and the bed catches him in the back of the knees. He stumbles and falls. Percy just watched, uncertain and confused. 

Hesitantly, he takes a step forward. Nico rolls off the other side of the bed. “Get away from me!” he yells. “Don’t touch me!”

Percy backs up quickly, hands up. “I’m sorry.”

Nico laughs, it’s not easy or pleasant this time. It’s high and desperate. “Sorry? What the hell are you sorry for? I just- oh Gods.”

He sinks down to the floor, and he’s so close to the far side of the bed that he sinks out of view. It’s stupid, but for a moment, Percy is sure that he’s shadow traveled away, like he does every time things get serious with the two of them. He takes a step forward, intent on checking to make sure that Nico is still there, but Annabeth grabs his hand and pulls him back.

When Percy turns to look at her, Annabeth just shakes her head, and gently pulls Percy to sit on the best next to her. Feeling useless and stupid and confused, Percy puts his arm around her waist and turns his head into her shoulder. In the quiet, he can hear Nico’s breaths, ragged and uneven.

\--

After what feels like hours, Nico’s breaths slow, and then not even Annabeth can stop Percy from going to check on him. Nico has fallen asleep, head back against the side of the bed. His face is red, and Percy wonders if he had been crying. If he had been, they hadn’t heard him.

Crouching down next to him, Percy brushes Nico’s hair away from his eyes. Nico doesn’t even stir. Even in sleep he look exhausted. Percy sighs, and bends to lift Nico, one arm below his knees, the other around his shoulders.

Annabeth is already pulling back the blankets of what’s become Nico’s bed, and Percy lays him down on the sheets. Nico curls onto his side, facing away from them. Annabeth tucks the blankets around him, then moves back to the bed she shares with Percy.

Percy sits down next to her, letting her draw him down until they lay side by side. He usually likes lying like this, facing one another. With his face pressed into the pillow and both eyes fixed on Annabeth, he can shut out the rest of the world, let her fill his vision and pretend that nothing else exists.

He can’t do that now. The world feels too big, there’s too much to block out completely, and past Annabeth’s ear, he can see Nico, curled up and small.

“I don’t understand,” he tells Annabeth, whispering. 

Annabeth reaches out to lace their fingers together, and he squeezes her hand gently.

“I don’t think that Nico wanted you to know.”

“Know what?”

Annabeth smiles, but it’s sad. “Oh, Percy,” she reaches up to touch his jaw, gently. “Your brain is so full of seaweed, you can’t see what’s right in front of you.”

Percy grabs her hand and places a gentle kiss on the palm. “You’re right in front of me.” And then, more seriously, “If you’re so smart, why don’t you explain it to me, wise girl?”

Annabeth leans her head forward so that their foreheads almost touch. “Isn’t it obvious? Nico is in love with you.”

Percy pulls back, jerking free from her hold. “What?”

Annabeth sits up as well. “Shh, don’t wake him!”

Percy glances over at Nico, still curled under the blankets. He’s pulled the top blanket up all the way to his ears, so that all they can see is his dark hair.

“What?” Percy repeats, softer this time. “No, he hates me. It’s you- I thought he liked you.”

Annabeth shakes her head. “I thought so too, for awhile. But the past few days…” she trails off, and Percy has to nudge her to get her to speak again. “I don’t know Percy, it was just a feeling.” She smiles at him. “I know what loving you looks like.”

Percy steals a quick kiss, darting in and out again before she can respond. 

“Is this what you two were talking about earlier.

Annabeth lies back down and Percy follows her, facing her again. “I don’t think I should say.”

“Please. I just, I don’t even know what’s going through his head right now. I don’t want to hurt him.”

Annabeth sighs. “He wouldn’t admit to anything. You know Nico, he keeps things to himself.”

Percy snorts. “That’s an understatement. I wish he would just trust us.”

“I think maybe it’s himself he doesn’t trust. The way he reacts- it’s not healthy.”

“I don’t think emotionally healthy could be applied to any demigod,” Percy says sardonically, and Annabeth smiles. Then the expression falters, and she’s back to serious.

“You remember Brooke? They way he reacted- it’s easy to forget that he was raised in the thirties. He isn’t like Hazel, he fits in.”

“He’s never around long enough for us to notice,” Percy corrects her, feeling a bit irritated.

“That too. But Percy, my point is, I don’t think he can even admit it to himself- how much he likes you. To have you know- I can’t even imagine what he’s thinking right now.”

“So, what should I do?”

Annabeth purses her lips. “What do you want to do?”

Percy rolls over so that he’s starting at the ceiling instead of Annabeth. “I-” he trails off, uncertain.

“How do you feel then?”

“I know I love you.”

“And Nico?”

Percy sighs. “Nico and I- we’re complicated. I never would have guessed- I just wanted him to trust me. I want to be his friend.”

Annabeth shifts so she can rest her head on his chest. “Percy, I’ve noticed- you worry about Nico. A lot. All of the things you do for him- would you do that for Jason? Or Frank?”

Percy bites his lip. “I owe Nico a lot. I haven’t always done right by him.”

Annabeth sits up. “Percy Jackson, you don’t owe Nico one thing. You’ve done your best by him, and he knows that. You know as well as I do that he wouldn’t want you looking our for him out of a misguided sense of guilt. Don’t try and sell me on that. I know you better.”

“Gods, Annabeth. I don’t know. I just, I want Nico to be happy. I want him to stick around and look after him. But other than that, I don’t know. It never even- I never thought about it.”

Annabeth makes a thoughtful noise. “I like Nico.”

Percy strokes his fingers through her hair. “So do I.”


	4. We Need To Talk (but not about this)

Annabeth wakes up that night screaming. 

Percy comes to instant awareness, Riptide in his hand before he can even think about it. When the sword stubbornly remains a pen, it jolts through him, that they’re stuck, that they’re captive.

Annabeth is sitting up in their bed, panting. Her breaths are ragged with choked back sobs, and her hands were clenched into the bed sheets. 

Percy knows better than to touch her at times like this- experience has been a hard teacher. On the nights when she wakes up crying, she needs him to pull her close and reassure her. But on nights like tonight, any contact will just make it worse.

Across the still-lit room, Percy can see Nico watching them. His face is paler than usual, and in this moment, everything that happened yesterday doesn’t matter.

Percy puts his hands near Annabeth’s. Her screams have leveled out, but her breath is still ragged and lost. Her eyes are far away.

“Annabeth?” Percy asks, tentative. She flinches away from his voice, and Percy pulls back quickly. He looks helplessly over her head at Nico, who’s still just watching him. Nico is sitting up in the bed now, blankets pulled all the way up to his chin.

Percy turns back to Annabeth, and when he speaks this time, he keeps his voice low and soothing. “Hey, Annabeth, it’s me. Percy. You’re not alone- you’re safe. I’m here, it’s ok.” Annabeth’s gaze is still far away, and Percy can tell that this is to be a long one. He moves out from under the blankets and sits across from her, a good two feet of distance between them. And then he keeps talking.

“You know, I don’t think I ever told you about this one time that Jason and I thought that it would be a good idea to try and clean out the horse stable together.” He takes a deep breath and launches into the story. The words hardly even matter, but Annabeth has told him how much it helped just to hear his voice. “So, I call up some water, and Jason, he summons this huge blast of wind. We’re thinking, you know, that he’ll get up all the dust, and then we can blow the water all over all the, you know, the messy stuff.’

Annabeth has shifted so her arms are wrapped around her knees, and her breaths are starting to even out. 

“Well, we forgot to discuss who would go first. I mean, I thought it would be like a car wash, you know? Where you get everything wet and then blow all the water off. And I guess Jason was thinking about just brushing the hay and stuff out before we get started. He was probably right about that. But we didn’t talk about it, right? So, we both just go- just at the same time.”

He chuckles a little, at the remembrance. “Gods, it was such a mess. I’m standing at one end of the stable, and he’s at the other. If you were there, you could have told us it was a bad idea to start with. But anyway, my jet of water and his wind blast just collide, in the middle of the stable. It was like a hurricane, right there in the stable! And then, because neither of wanted to be the first one to start, all of the mess had nowhere to go, it was just getting pulled into this giant cyclone in the middle of the stable. You should have seen it by the end- this column of wind and water almost 5 feet across, just full of hay and straw and dirt and horse shit. It was the worst.

“And then, by that point, that point, we’d figured out what would happen if either one of us broke first, and all I knew was that it wasn’t going to be me. We probably would have kept going until one of us got tired, but then Piper came by. She figured out what was going on pretty fast, and she yelled at both of us to it out. Well, you know what’s like when Piper gives an order like that- you can’t even remember why it’s a bad idea to do what she says. 

“So we both just stopped. And then the cyclone just exploded outwards. And Jason and I are just standing there, covered in this mess. And it was all over the walls of the stable and everything. Gods, everyone was so angry. On the plus side, Jason and I have been permanently banned from stable duty, so it wasn’t all bad.”

Percy hears a snort from the other side of the room, and he glances over to see that Nico is trying not to laugh. Percy raises his eyebrows. “Something to say?” 

Nico sobers at once, like the weight of Percy’s eyes on him is a reprimand, and he pulls back into himself as quickly as a turtle withdrawing into a shell. Percy wants to say something, but he has bigger issues at the moment. 

Annabeth has moved so that her forehead is resting on her knees, and as far as he can tell, her breath is even. He makes the mistake of trying to touch her, reaching for her hand. Annabeth gasps, and pulls back, her eyes suddenly wild. She lashes out with her legs, and Percy gets a solid kick to the jaw.

It makes him grunt, falling back onto the bed with a hand to the injured area. When he looks back up, Annabeth has pulled back to press against the headboard. Carefully, Percy gets back up to his knees, keeping his distance.

“It’s ok, I’m sorry. Won’t happen again.” And, ow, his jaw really hurts. Shit. 

“Are you ok?” Nico asks, and Percy is a bit irritated to see that he hasn’t even moved from under his own blanket.

“Yeah, I’m great,” he snaps. He half expects Nico to flinch back from his tone, but Nico has always been more tough than Percy gives him credit for.

Instead, Nico glances at Annabeth. “Does this happen often?” 

Percy shrugs, the irritation draining away to be replaced by exhaustion. “Often enough. You know what it’s like.” Shit. That was probably the worst thing that he could have said. 

But Nico just nods, looking sad. “And talking, that helps?”

“Sometimes. Sometimes it helps to touch her, but sometimes it makes it worse. You saw.”

Nico pulls in tighter to himself, and Percy remembers that Nico doesn’t have anyone to help him get through the nights like this.

“Do you want to help?” Percy offers tentatively. “It might help her to hear someone else’s voice. Since I was, you know, there with her.”

Nico bites his lip, hesitant. “I don’t think-”

“Annabeth likes you,” Percy says, and it’s only a little pleading. 

Nico lets all of his breath out in a rush. “Ok. Ok, I’ll help.” He opens his mouth, then closes it again. “What should I say?”

“I dunno, anything. A funny story.”

Nico ducks his head, twisting his ring around his fingers. “I don’t. Well.” He swallows. “Life in the underworld isn’t very humorous.”

Percy’s heart clenches.Gods, Nico. “Sure it is,” he says, trying for levity. “Man, the family dinners? That has to be nuts.”

Nico just stares at him, face open and vulnerable. Slowly, he shakes his head. “Gods, Percy. Don’t you ever quit?”

“Nope!” Percy says, falsely cheerful. “Come on, tell us about that time that Persephone turned you into a dandelion. That had to be fun.”

Nico snorts. “Fun. Right. I was coughing up seeds for a month. You know, those puffy little white ones?”

Percy grins. “There, you see! Fun times. But you have to tell the full story.”

Nico blinks at him, his posture relaxing. At least he’s stopped clutching his blanket to his chest like he’s afraid Percy is going to come after him. “Um, she turned me into a dandelion? The end?”

Percy barks a laugh, he can’t help himself. “No, no. From the beginning.”

“Don’t bother,” Annabeth says dryly, and they both snap around to look at her. “I’m good now.”

Percy crawls up the blankets to get closer to her. “Good?”

Annabeth gives him a small smile. “I’m better.” She puts her hand to his jaw, over the bruise he can practically feel forming. “You?”

“I’ll heal.” Then, cheekily, Percy turns to Nico. “You?”

Nico looks startled at being included. “Yes. I mean, fine?”

“Great!” Percy says. Annabeth shakes her head and pokes him in the ribs to make him yelp and fall back. While Percy settles himself, Annabeth turns to Nico.

“Thank you. Hearing the two if you- it helped.”

Nico twists his hands together. “I didn’t do anything.”

Annabeth shakes her head. “No- you helped. Thank you.” When Nico stays silent, she prompts, “and now you say, you’re welcome, and we all go back to sleep.”

“You’re welcome?” Nico says, more question then answer. 

“Good boy,” Annabeth says approvingly. Over her shoulder, Percy gives Nico a thumbs up, and counts it as a win when Nico smiles.

\--

When Percy wakes again, hunger hits him like a blow to the stomach, making it hard to move, to breathe. Since Tartarus, hunger comes to him less frequently, and it’s easier to push away, like he has done so far. 

It’s hard to tell how much time they’ve spent in here, with the constant, never-changing light and the odd sleep cycle they’ve fallen into. His yesterdays have become the time that was before he last slept, while tomorrow will be after he sleeps next.

But even with that, he’s fairly certain they’re going on two days without food, and the effects are getting hard to ignore. He just groans when Annabeth shakes his shoulder, curling around his stomach and trying not to think about it.

“You have to just ignore it,” Nico says, his voice heavy from the other bed.

Percy wants to snap at him, because it’s easier said than done, but he can’t muster the energy. And then he realizes that Nico is speaking from bitter experience.

“How did you stand it?” he asked, pressing his head into Annabeth’s shoulder. Percy and Nico had reached a somewhat uneasy truce where Percy would ignore what had happened, and in exchange, Nico wouldn’t ignore Percy. Percy figured neither of them were really happy about that, but as things stood, it was as good as it would get.

“I didn’t have any other choice,” Nico says quietly, and this time when Percy curls tighter, it’s partly from a dull ache in his chest that seems to come out more and more when Nico speaks.

It’s almost a relief when Nike shows up. She seems disappointed to find all three of them still in the bed. 

“Why aren’t you up?” she asks. “I have more questions! We had an interview scheduled for five minutes ago, you should be ready.”

Percy glares at her. “We’re not going to be any good to you when we die of starvation.”

Annabeth pinches his arm, but he ignores her. It’s not like he’s wrong.

Nike frowns. “Food? I left some nectar and ambrosia in the mini-fridge.”

“Which is fatal to demi-gods in large doses,” Annabeth says, and even though her tone is polite, Percy knows her well enough to hear the ‘you idiot’ tacked onto the end.

“Ah, yes,” Nike says thoughtfully. “You mortals need… sustenance.” She shrugs. “Whoops. I forget how adorably fragile you are! I was hanging out with Heracles the other day- now there is a hero I could get to know better, let me tell you- and he didn’t need a single thing.”

“He’s immortal now!” Percy snaps. And then, because Nico is looking more like a miserable pile of skin and bones then a person, he adds, “Plus, you have to apologize to us everytime you mention Hercules.”

“I-what?”

“It’s in the rules,” Percy adds helpfully, and he’s rewarded when Nico snorts a laugh. It’s totally worth it, even when Annabeth pinches him again. 

Nike is frowning again. “I am not familiar with these rules.”

“They’re totally official,” Nico chimes in, and seriously, Percy loves this kid. 

“Well, I do believe in adhering to the rules,” Nike says slowly. “Very well, I apologize.”

Percy turns his head to grin at Nico, and is thrilled to get a smile in response. Progress.

“And you will bring us food?” Annabeth prompts, and Nike sighs.

“Yes, very well. I honestly did not think that amazing fighters like you guys would need food. It’s just,” her voice goes into what is distinctly a pouty whine, “it’s just so disappointing. Food! It’s ridiculous.”

“Well,” Annabeth says, all cool reason. “You want us to fight your monsters soon, don’t you? We’ll fight a lot better with food. And water. We will win many victories for you!”

Nike claps her hands together, delighted. “It’s a deal! I’ll go get some food, and when I get back, I want to hear more about Tartarus!” She practically bounces out of the room. Percy slumps back into the pillows.

“We’re going to have to actually fight those monsters soon,” he says, and Annabeth just touches his hand gently, and doesn’t reply.

\--

As it turns out, “soon” is even sooner than they expect. It’s hardly one day later than Nike comes with a plate of pancakes and a demand that one of them get ready to show her an amazing victory.

Percy stands immediately. “Me.”

Annabeth and Nico both protest, just like he had known they would. He just glares at both of them. “I am the leader of this quest, which makes this my responsibility.”

“I’m going next,” Annabeth says, and Percy wants to say no, absolutely not, but he doesn’t get the chance. Nike grabs him by his upper arm and he feels a terrible tug, and then the room he shares with Nico and Annabeth is gone. Wherever they appear is blinding after the low interior lights of their cell, and it leaves Percy horribly confused and disoriented.

For a second, he thinks that the roaring in his ears is the residual effects of whatever mode of transport that Nike had used. And then his vision clears, and it’s much worse than he thought. He’s a large stone amphitheatre like Annabeth always talks about, like she used to show him pictures in old books, and talk about the structural marvel that as was an arch. 

It’s an arena like gladiators used to fight in, and the stands are completely full. 

Percy’s throat goes instantly dry. They had talked, made idle plans of using these fights to escape. They’d had no idea.

Percy gropes in his pocket for Riptide, and to his immense relief, it turns into a sword into his hand. He spins around, hoping to catch Nike beside him, but he is suddenly alone in the center of the field.

When he looks up, he can see that Nike has taken a seat at a grand throne that overlooks the arena, like how the Roman emperors would sit. Her Nike-brand sport clothes have been replaced with a flowing grey dress, accented with orange. If he squints, he can just see that she still has an orange check across the front of the dress.

A surge of noise from the crowd makes Percy jump, and draws his attention back the the field. He’s surrounded by high metal gates, and one of them is slowly creaking open. 

Then there’s a sudden below and the minotaur comes thundering through. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Percy yells at Nike. She gives him a cheerful wave and Percy is still glaring up her when the minotaur charges. 

The minotaur doesn’t have his stupid axe this time, but he’s carrying a large broadsword,well over the reach of Percy and his smaller sword. Percy dodges under the swing and has enough time for his sword to bite deep into the minotaur’s side before he has to get away fast.

“Aren’t you getting tired of my kicking your ass?” he asks, bracing himself for the next charge. 

The minotaur doesn’t disappoint him, and charges Percy without thought. Well, he never was the best at well-reasoned attacks.

“Seriously,” Percy says, neatly sidestepping the minotaur’s sword. “I killed you when I was eleven. I mean, that’s just embarrassing for you.”

He lunges in and digs his sword into the minotaur’s back, just over the shoulder blade. The monster roars in pain, and the crowd just roars.

Percy is out of range again before the minotaur can get turned around. He isn’t worried about the fight, not when he’s fought monsters so much bigger and more frightening. Instead, Percy feels a fierce joy that almost frightens him.

After being cooped in that room for so long, it feels good to stretch his muscles, to feel the wind and the sun on his face. It feels better to have something to vent his anger on. The minotaur, which he thought took his mother when he was eleven, which was a challenge for him at fifteen, can’t possibly beat him at seventeen. And it feels so good.

“Come on, big guy!” Percy says, when he ducks under one of those massive swings. “You’re going to have to be faster than that!”

The minotaur is big and slow, and he moves in large arcs that are easy to duck under. Percy is faster, lighter and he wants to laugh at how easy this is. He gets in another cut above the monster's legs, grinning with exhilaration as it stumbles.

“Is that the best you can do?” he asks, moving in closer. The minotaur slashes out with his sword and the tip if it catches on Percy’s shirt, tearing through and cutting into the skin.

Percy glances down at his shirt, torn and now getting stained with blood. “Man, I only have so many of these.”

The minotaur clambers awkwardly to his feet, but Percy is there first, inside the monster’s broad swing. Riptide locks with that lethal broadswords, and Percy has to grip with both hands to avoid having it ripped from his hands. The minotaur is bearing down on his, and Percy has to crouch to stop his knees from buckling.

Percy can smell it’s foul breath, can hear the shouts from the crowd of monsters that want to see him dead, and he knows, deep in his bones, that this is now how his life will end. He screams with the effort, pushes up and twists. The minotaur’s sword flies, and Percy moves in before the minotaur can recover, striking low and biting his sword into the monster’s legs.

It goes down, defeated. Percy stares down at it, and for a wild moment, he wants to keep fighting, to keep delivering painful non-fatal blows, all the while knowing that he will be the one who wins.

The thought makes him sick. He raises his sword and drives it down through the minotaur’s chest, and it explodes into dust around him.

Percy raises his eyes to the dais where Nike was sitting. She’s on her feet now, her arms in front of her face like a child and she’s screaming as loud as the rest of the crowd. 

“Now let me go!” Percy screams, furious and tired and feeling bruised inside. 

Nike winks at him, and waves a hand.

The arena spins around him, and he staggers, eyes closing around the dizzy feeling.

Then, there are arms around him, supporting him. He can smell Annabeth’s shampoo, can feel the brush of her curls on his jaw. It’s comforting. Softer, less familiar, he can smell something like the earth, deep and cold. It should give him the shudders, too much like Gaia, like drowning in dirt, but it’s reassuringly solid instead.

“Percy?” Annabeth asks, tone heavy with concern.

“I’m fine,” he says, forcing his eyes open. Annabeth is supporting most of his weight, and Nico is hovering over her shoulder, looking worried. Percy smiles at him in reassurance, and let’s Annabeth guide him to the bed.

“I’m fine,” he repeats, when Annabeth starts peering into his eyes like she suspects a concussion.

“You’re bleeding,” Nico replies skeptically. Percy glances down at his chest, where the blood from his cut has coated the front of his shirt.

“It’s nothing.” He reaches for the hem of his shirt and tugs it up, pulling it over his head.

“Don’t-” Annabeth starts, then stops. “You idiot, now you’re going to have blood in your hair.”

Percy makes a face. “Gross.”

“Yeah, gross. That’s why you need to let other people help you. Nico, would you get me some ambrosia from the mini-fridge?”

Nico, who’d been staring at the wall since Percy took his shirt off, jumps. “What? Yes, ok.” 

“Check if there are any bandages in there?” Annabeth calls.

“Don’t bother, I’m fine!”

Nico turns around to glare at him. “If you’re bleeding, you don’t get an opinion.”

Percy glares back, then flinches when Annabeth pokes at the cut. “Don’t touch it!” 

“I thought it was nothing,” Annabeth says sweetly.

Percy opens his mouth to argue and gets ambrosia shoved in his mouth for his efforts. “Shut up and eat the ambrosia,” Nico says. To Annabeth, he adds. “There are no bandages. We could rip up-”

“Everything we have is dirty. We run the risk of infection.”

Nico drops down onto the bed next to Percy. “So what do we do?”

“Seriously guys, I’m fine,” Percy says. “We’re in the magical healing room of power, aren’t we? See, it’s not even bleeding anymore.”

Nico gets to his feet without saying a word, stomping over to his own bed. Percy and Annabeth watch him curiously. Without looking at either of them, Nico dumps his pillow out of it’s case and onto the bed. Then he takes the case between his hands and rips it in half.

“Woah, calm down, Hulkling,” Percy says. Nico ignores him and begins to methodically tear the fabric into strips.

“What happened?” Annabeth asks as Nico moves closer and starts to wind the impromptu bandages around Percy’s chest.

“It was the stupid minotaur. Again. Seriously, I hate that guy.” As soon as Nico finishes, Percy drops back onto the bed. Nico moves back to his bed and Percy grabs the hem of his shirt tugging until Nico is sitting on the bed behind him.

“Is this the same minotaur who you killed on the bridge?” Nico asks. Percy tilts his head back so that he can see Nico. Nico isn’t looking at him, and for a moment, Percy thinks of how vulnerable he must look, shirtless with his neck bared like this. His face goes hot, and he drops his head forward again. Annabeth catches his eye and raises an eyebrow. Percy flushes and picks at the tucked end of the bandage on his chest.

Annabeth slaps his hand away and Percy glares at her. She glares right back, not giving an inch.

“Yeah, that’s the one,” Percy replies to Nico’s question. “First monster I ever fought.” His hands clench into fists, and that scares him. He’s killed the minotaur three times now and still the thought of him is enraging. “I thought he killed my mom.”

Carefully, Annabeth takes his hand in her own and gently uncurls his fingers, putting her own in his palm. It’s like she’s unraveling his anger, taking him apart with her slim fingers, and replacing it with her calm.

He sucks in a deep breath, and it’s like a dam breaking. Breaking on his big dam problem, and he huffs out a laugh that hurts on the way out.

“What happened?” Annabeth asks again, and Nico is totally silent behind him.

“I didn’t want to kill him,” Percy admits, and it hurts to say, clawing it’s way out of his throat. Nico makes a startled, questioning noise, but Annabeth puts her spare hand on Nico’s wrist and he falls silent.

“I didn’t want to kill him,” Percy repeats. “I wanted him to keep living- I wanted him to suffer.” He sucks in air like he’s gasping for breath, like he’s drowning. “I wanted to make him suffer.”

“Oh, Percy,” Annabeth says, and she squeezes his hand gently.

Percy clenches his eyes shut and feels sick with himself. “What kind of person does that make me? Gods, I’m becoming a monster myself-”

“Don’t say that,” Nico says, soft. “It’s not true.”

“You don’t know,” Percy says, and he can’t make himself look at Nico, at either of them. He can’t bear to think about what he might be giving up just by telling them this. “I wanted to, if I hadn’t-” he chokes on his own words, on the darkness of his thoughts.

“I know,” Nico says, and his voice is barely above a whisper. Then there’s a cool touch in Percy’s hair, running over his scalp gently tangling in the strands. “I know, Percy.”

Percy closes his eyes and breathes, just breathes. Nico’s touch is as soothing as Annabeth’s- her hand is hot in his, but Nico’s hands are cool. It’s nice. 

“Relax,” Annabeth says. “It’s ok.”

Percy takes a deep breath, and it’s easier. Then, with an effort that hurts like setting a broken bone, painful but clean, he let’s go and let’s them help him.

\--

Nike swans in just as Percy is starting to feel calm. “Oh, wow, you were just amazing!” she says. 

Annabeth stands, letting go of Percy’s hand. Nico stays close, but Percy can feel Nico’s fingers clench in his hair.

“Percy is still healing. Come back later.”

“Oh, but he was so fantastic. Percy, I just have to talk to you. How did it feel to face the minotaur again? Was it fun? Satisfying?”

Percy feels anger start to build, but it’s distant and far off. Nico runs his hands through Percy’s hair and the feeling relaxes.

“He had a blast,” Annabeth snaps. “Get out.”

Nike pouts. “I just need to get a post-game interview. Percy Jackson vs the Minotaur, round three! It’s amazing.”

Percy sighs and pushes himself up. Somewhere in the last few minutes, he’d ended up his head on Nico’s leg. “It’s fine, guys.”

“Wonderful!” Nike says, thrusting her mike into Percy’s face. “Percy, how did it feel to face the minotaur again?”

“I knew I could face him, so I wasn’t afraid,” Percy says.

Nike questions him for over half an hour before she gets bored enough to leave. “Don’t worry,” she says on her way out. “I’ll be back tomorrow with more questions. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about Tartarus!”

“Wouldn’t want that,” Percy mutters to himself, glaring at Nike. She blows them a kiss and leaves. 

“I hate her,” Nico says, matter-a-fact, and Percy nudges nudges him with a shoulder. 

\--

Just as she promised, Nike comes back the next day with more questions about Tartarus. Like the time before, Percy and Annabeth try to tell enough of their story to keep her attention off of Nico, who still looks shaky and pale whenever the topic comes out.

“Ten years of demigod training, and I’ve become Sherazade,” Annabeth says grumpily. They’re all three sitting on the floor, trading nonsensical stories of their childhood. It’s the only thing that they can do without driving themselves crazy, although Percy has started ripping up the scraps of Annabeth’s jeans to make a chips for checkers.

“It could be worse,” Nico replies. “We could be back in-” he snaps his mouth closed, and stares at the floor.

“Well, at least we have you with us, this time,” Annabeth says carefully, and gets a small smile in time. “Come on, Percy. It’s your turn.”

Percy rolls his eyes, because it was definitely Nico’s turn. He’s going to accuse Annabeth of favoritism, sometime when Nico doesn’t look so brittle.

Percy starts to tell Nico about the time when he was six and he had talked him mom into making blue meatloaf. “Ugly Gabe went totally green when he saw it. It was so great.” Percy had been sent to his room without getting to eat, but it had been totally worth it. Besides, his mom had snuck him a plate under the door when Gabe had fallen asleep.

“I used to play pranks on Bianca, when we were little,” Nico says quietly. Percy and Annabeth fall instantly silent. “Back when we were still living in Italy, I used to think it was the funniest thing to hide in her closet, and then jump out when she came in the room.” He laughs a little. “One time I waited in there so long that I fell asleep. I think she had to carry me to my bed. I did it so often that I think she just pretended to be scared to make me feel better.”

“You were a little trouble maker.” Percy grins and nudges Nico’s shoulder. Nico shrugs. 

“I guess I was. It always made her smile though. Well, most of the time. One time, at boarding school, I thought it would be funny- well, I lined up all of my mythomagic figurines on the bathroom counter, like a little Greek army. That probably would have been fine, but I kept moving it, to where ever I thought she would be. And the next day, she went to her classes and I had lined them all up on her desk. She was so mad.”

“She couldn’t have been too mad, if she gave all of them back to you,” Annabeth points back.

“She kept them for almost a month,” Nico said. “Actually, I think she only gave them back because we were moving again. And then, well, you know.” He swallows.

“It sounds like she really loved you,” Annabeth says tentatively.

“She did,” Nico says quietly. “Even when- when she left. I was so angry, but I never doubted that. She was all I had.”

“You have us too,” Percy says, and, feeling reckless on a rare feeling of peace and a less rare swoop of affection, he reaches out to touch Nico’s hand.

Nico stares at him, eyes wide for a long moment. Then Nico rips his hand away and gets to his feet. “I’m tired,” he says, not looking at either of them. “I’m going to bed.”

Annabeth puts her hand on Percy’s shoulder sympathetically. 

\--

The next day, Nike comes for Annabeth. “I have a special surprise for you! I’m sorry that it took me this long, but I wanted to make sure what I got was worthy of you.”

Percy gets to his feet. “No, I want to go again.”

There is real anger in Annabeth’s face when she rounds on him. “Percy, no.”

“Sorry, Percy, but you’ve had your turn! Besides, this surprise is special for Annabeth. That means no to you too.” She addresses the last to Nico, who had also gotten to his feet. 

Annabeth glares at them both. “While it’s nice to know that chivalry isn’t dead, I can fight my own battles just fine, and both know it. I’d be more than happy to show you, when I get back. Now sit down and play nice while I’m gone.”

“That’s the spirit!” Nike says cheerfully, and grips Annabeth hard. They both disappear, no pop or puff of smoke to show their disappearance. 

Percy sits slowly back down onto his own bed, drumming his fingers together

“Gods,” he says after a minute. “This is worse than actually fighting.”

Nico, lying on his back on the other bed, rolls his head over to give Percy a piercing look. “No kidding.”

Percy punches the bed, just for something to do. After a moment, he lies down, thinking it might help. It doesn’t. He’s back on his feet before five minutes are up, pacing the length of the room.

“Will you sit down,” Nico says after a moment. “You’re making me anxious.”

“You mean you weren’t already?” Percy demands.

Nico sits up to glare at him. “Of course I am. But you wearing a hole in the floor isn’t going to help anyone.”

“I don’t know,” Percy says lightly. “I think a hole in the floor is just what we need.”

Nico snorts. “Just sit down, Jackson. Annabeth can handle herself.”

“Her leg-”

“Didn’t stop her from kicking your ass the other day. I was there, you know.”

“And half dying yourself,” Percy replies, but he takes a seat. “Your judgement was questionable at best.”

“She pinned you and you know it,” Nico replies, smiling just a bit.

“I was distracted,” Percy admits.

“By what?” 

Percy looks down, fingering the edge of the bedspread. “I saw you in the crowd.”

When Nico doesn’t answer, Percy glances over at him. The boy is staring at a point on the wall, brows knit close together. 

“Nico?” Percy asks carefully. He never has any idea what sets Nico into these moods, or how to fix it when he gets there.

“Don’t say things like that, Percy.” 

“Like what?” Percy asks, totally lost.

“Just- like that!” Nico pushes a hand through his hair, making it more mussed than usual. 

Percy picks at a loose thread on the bedspread and takes a deep breath. “Are we going to talk about it?” 

Without looking, he can head Nico draw in breath. He knows that Nico will have gone stuff, marble still with tension. “Talk about what?” Nico asks, but his voice is too tight for playing innocent.

Percy slaps his hand down on the bed and stares at Nico. “You know what. You kissed me.”

“I think I liked it better when you were pacing,” Nico says, standing. He’s facing the wall, away from Percy and Percy feels that too familiar urge to throttle him. 

“Dammit, Nico, stop it. Just look at me, will you?”

“What, I have to see your face to be rejected?” Nico snaps. “No, thank you.”

“That’s not-”

Nico rounds on him, and even though it’s what Percy wanted, he still wants to back away. Nico’s eyes are flashing with anger, his face is drawn up and too-old with pain. “Not what you were going to say? What, you’re going to leave your perfect girl friend, and your perfect life to, what? Be a frocio with the unwanted son of Hades?”

“I don’t know what that word means,” Percy shouts back. 

“Figure it out!”

“And you’re not unwanted!”

Nico actually tugs at the ends of his hair. “Just shut up!”

“No! Gods, Nico, just talk to me!”

“What do you want to hear?” Nico yells. “Do you want to hear that this is torture for me? I’m locked in a fucking tiny room with you and your perfect little girlfriend, with your perfect little relationship. And now you fucking know, and it’s awful! I feel like I’m naked in front of you! Is that what you want to hear?”

Abruptly, all of Percy’s anger is gone. “Nico,” he says softly, taking a step forward. Nico back up, his back hitting the far wall. 

“Don’t. Please, don’t.”

Percy drops his hand. “What do you want from me?”

Nico laughs, and it’s high and hysterical. “Nothing you can give me, obviously. Sparing that, some space would be fucking fantastic. Just, stay over there. Don’t touch me. And,” his voice breaks. “Stop being so fucking nice all the time.”

Percy swallows. “You want me to be mean to you?”

“Yes,” Nico replies. “No. I don’t know.” He slides down the wall and draws his knees up to his chest. “Just leave me alone.”

Percy slows sits down on the bed, trying not to make a noise. Nico puts his head down onto his folded arms, and Percy just watches.

“I’m never going to hate you, Nico,” he says after a moment.

Nico looks up, glaring. His eyes are wet, but there are no tears on his face. “What did I say about being nice.”

“I’m not going to stop being your friend, either,” Percy replies. 

Nico tilts his head back against the wall and gives a humorless chuckle. “Great. I have a whole lifetime of this to look forward to.”

“I’m not that great, Nico. Sooner or later, you’ll figure that out.”

Nico fixes Percy with a piercing look. “What makes you think I haven’t?”

Percy falters. “Well, you’re” he gestures vaguely. “you know.”

Nico gives that same, bitter chuckle again. “Yeah. I know.”

“It won’t be forever, is what I mean.” Percy tries to ignore how his throat clenches around the words. What is wrong with him? He doesn’t want Nico to be miserable like this forever. Does he? No, of course not. He wants Nico to be happy. He just doesn’t want Nico to move on.

Nico tilts his head back against the wall. “You suck at this, you know.”

“Shut up,” Percy snaps, face going red. “I’m trying here.”

Nico snorts. “Badly.”

“Shut up,” Percy says again. “Whatever.”

“Good one,” Nico says dryly. Well, if insulting Percy will make Nico feel better, than Percy is more than happy to oblige him. 

“Did I ever tell you about the time Rachel and I tried to go on a date?” Percy asks. It’s a risk, mentioning dates to Nico at all, but it features Percy looking pretty stupid, which Nico generally likes in stories,

Nico’s shoulders tense, but he shakes his head. Percy launches into the story, watching Nico out of the corner if his eyes. Slowly, Nico starts to relax, and by the time Percy gets to Blackjack landing on the car, Nico is even smiling at the really bad parts.

Which, of course, is when Annabeth reappears in the room.

\--

Annabeth sways in the center of the room. Her hair is pulled free from her ponytail and her hands are opening and closing absently around thin air.

Percy is one his feet instantly, going to her side. He’s gratified to find that Nico is right behind him, supporting her other side. 

“It was a cyclops,” Annabeth spits angrily. Her mouth is red with blood. Carefully, Percy cups her chin in his palm and looks her over. She has a bruise on her cheekbone, and there’s blood staining her cheek, but she doesn’t look hurt.

“You’re ok?” he asks, just to be sure.

Annabeth gives him a bloody grin. “You’ve fought one, you’ve fought them all. I think Nike was going for theme over level of difficulty.”

“Theme?” Nico asks, but Percy goes pale. 

“She’s doing our first monsters. But that means-” They both turn to look at Nico, who blinks for a confused second, then goes white.

“The manticore,” Percy and Nico say together, and Nico sits down hard on the bed beside Annabeth.

“But he was a level ten monster.”

Percy and Annabeth exchange a look.

“Ah, Nico,” Percy’s voice cracks with the effort not to laugh. “Did you just mythomagic us?”

Nico’s cheeks go red. “No!”

“So, a level ten?” Annabeth says, and her poker face is way better than Percy’s but she’s still struggling. “So that’s what? 300 attack points?”

“I think it might be weak to ranged weapons,” Percy points out, and the both collapse into laughter. 

“Seriously,” Nico says. “You two are the worst.”

“Aw, you love us,” Percy teases.

Nico goes tense and Percy is just about to apologize when, just as suddenly, Nico relaxes again.

“Actually, it had 150 attack points, and if you tapped 5 extra power, you could enact poison on one enemy creature,” Nico says, with his nose in the air.

Percy laughs. “You nerd.”

Annabeth stretches out on the bed, kicking her shoes off. “Tell me about how you got into Mythomagic.” 

“Oh, yeah!” Percy agrees, shifting so that his knees are touching Annabeth’s stomach. “Story time!”

Nico rolls his eyes, but he pulls his feet up onto the bed and curls up by Annabeth’s feet. “It’s not much of a story. Bianca and I kept getting transferred from school to school. You know how it is.”

Percy and Annabeth both nod, and Nico continues. “Well, I wasn’t too much a troublemaker, or anything.” He flashes Percy a small smile. “Not like you.” Percy grins back. He likes this bold Nico. “It was just me and Bianca, so I wanted to make things easier. But I just couldn’t care about school. None of the teachers cared that I was dyslexic, and they kept asking to meet our parents, so things got a bit rough for awhile.

“So anyway, Bianca comes home with this deck one day,” he snorts. “She pretended it like a big present, but I’m pretty sure she got it in line at the supermarket. She told me that every week I could go without getting into trouble, if I did all my homework, then she would bring me a new deck.”

“Classic bribery.” Percy nods.

“A whole deck?” Annabeth asks. “That’s a pretty big promise.”

Nico waves her away. “No, it was just those little booster packs they sell at the supermarket. But I went with her next time and I found a starter set. It was great. And after that, I started really trying. By the time I met you, I’d built over eight decks, and-” He stops, coughing. “Well, you know.”

“I remember that you were this scrawny little thing,” Percy says, gesturing around the area of the floor to indicate Nico’s imagined height. “Who’d just been attacked by a manticore, and all you want to know was if Zeus had lightening bolts that had plus something attack power.”

Nico shrugs. “I wasn’t afraid, I knew that-” he stops abruptly. “that I was safe.”

“Oh yeah?” Percy asks, unable to contain a grin.

“Yeah. Because of the Hunters. Of course.”

Percy fakes a pout. “Oh, of course.”

Annabeth laughs. “You’re both ridiculous.”

Percy swoops in and kisses her on the cheek. 

“Aw, you guys are so cute!” Nike exclaims from the foot of the bed. Percy and Annabeth both jerk at the same time, and her forehead hits his jaw with a loud crack. Percy swears and falls back, almost toppling off the side of the bed. It’s only Nico’s quick thinking that saves him, gripping Percy’s arm tightly to keep him on the bed.

“What do you want?” Percy asks, getting to his feet. 

Nike smiles at him. “The post-game interview, of course!”

“Percy, it’s fine.” Annabeth puts her hand on his arm when he opens his mouth to protest.

The questions this time are almost the same as yesterday, and Nike seems delighted when Annabeth mentions the theme.

“Oh, I was so hoping that you would notice!” Nike says. “I have to tell you, it wasn’t easy to get that Minotaur. I mean, cyclops, they’re a dime-a-dozen. But the Minotaur? You were lucky he was so keen on revenge!”

“Yeah, lucky,” Percy mutters. Nike gives him a winning smile.

“That’s the spirit!” She rounds on Nico. “And don’t get me started on you! I assume you know what you’ll be facing?”

“The manticore,” Nico says, eyes cold. 

Nike reaches out and pinches his cheeks. “You are just so smart. Yes, exactly! That is still in progress, of course. He is not an easy man to reach. You have to book with his secretary almost a month in advance just to talk to him! But I should have to penciled in for sometime next week, don’t worry.” She ruffles Nico’s hair, and Nico ducks away from her hand.

“Don’t touch him,” Percy says, reaching for her angrily.

“Percy, don’t!” Nico cries, just before Percy’s fingers wrap around the meat of her arm. She’s all hard muscle, and she looks down at him with the kind of cold disdain he’s used to seeing from the Gods.

With hardly an effort, she shakes Percy off her arm and he lands sprawled on the floor.

“I’ll be back tomorrow for another interview,” she says, and the disappearing door closes behind her, and then does what it does best.

“I hate her so much,” Percy growls, sittin up on the floor and clenching his hands into fists. “What is wrong with her?” he pounds a hand into the ground, but before he can do it again, Nico catches his fist. Percy has to stop himself from carrying the blow through to Nico’s face.

He sucks in a deep breath, and lets it out slowly. 

“I’m fine,” Nico says carefully. “Annabeth is fine. We’re going to get out of here soon. Don’t worry.”

Percy tries for a smile, but it feels weak. “Worry? Me?”

Nico smiles and cuffs him on the back of the head lightly. “Shut up Jackson. You’re prettier when you keep your mouth closed.”

Percy shoves Nico, carefully, in case Nico thinks that Percy means it in disgust. When Nico falls back, he’s laughing. 

Percy wonders if being in here so long is starting to make them all crazy. He wonders if they’re even going to be able to tell the difference.

Instead of saying anything, he laughs along with Nico, and pretends that they’re just hanging out for fun.  
\--

The rest of the week passes in much the same way. Every day, they take turns pounding on the walls, checking under the bed and getting nowhere. They try to attack Nike at least once every other day, but she just laughs off their attacks. She seems to find it amusing, and it drives Percy crazy,

And then, finally, Nike is no longer satisfied with Percy and Annabeth leading the story time. They’ve started to repeat themselves, and even Annabeth’s clever phrasing can hide the fact that she’s talking about facing Akhlys again. 

“Enough,” Nike commands, holding up one hand. “I’ve heard one story of surviving Tartarus. But I have yet to hear from you.” She turns to Nico, who visibly stops himself from pulling back.

“Wait!” Percy says. “We didn’t tell you about how Annabeth got her new sword.”

Nike gives him a deeply unimpressed look. “You’ve told me twice.”

“Are you sure?” Annabeth presses. “Because we may have forgotten something.”

“It’s ok, guys,” Nico says from his own bed. “I can answer a few questions.”

“Nico,” Percy says hesitatingly.

Nico’s eyes flash dangerously. “I’m not a child, Percy. I think I can answer a few questions.”

“Of course you can,” Percy replies. “It’s just-” Nico had been all by himself, no one could share this burden with him like he and Annabeth had shared it. 

“We don’t think you’re weak,” Annabeth steps in, and for the first time, Percy feels more guilty than pleased at having her beside him. Nico has no one, he sits on his bed by himself, ready to tell the story of his solo journey through the most horrifying place imaginable.

Despite his bravado, Nico’s voice shakes a little when he begins his story.

“Entering Tartarus wasn’t deliberate. I was looking for the Doors. I thought- I hoped- that I would be able to close them. Death is… easier. For me. I was thought it meant there wouldn’t have to be as many dangers, that the monsters would stop dying.” His eyes flick up to Percy, then back down again.

“I found the Doors. I could feel them, from miles away. I thought that I would just take a look, but they have a pull- a drag. I thought I was stronger- I got stupid. I went too close. It’s hard to explain. I didn’t go through the Doors, I would not have survived if I had.”

He shudders. “The Doors wanted me to go through them. It was awful, this cold, this sucking. And when I realized that you would need to have someone on the other side, I was” his voice breaks, and Percy just wants him to stop talking, “I was relieved, because it meant I wouldn’t have to be alone. I was a coward.”

“Nico-” Percy starts, but Nico shakes his head, more of a jerk than a proper shake. It makes his dark hair fall into his eyes, shadowing his face. He looks haunted.

“And I was scared,” he continues. “I just wanted to get out. I should have walked. But I could feel this terrible tug, and I needed to get away. I shadow traveled.” He shakes his head. “It’s hard to explain. I use the shadows, but it’s more like an entrance to a tunnel that then tunnel itself. It actually- it’s more like a thin system that operates just above the underworld, drawing on it’s magic. Death exists everywhere, so do these tunnels. The tug was worse there, it was all stretched and warped by the open doors. I managed to take a few steps, enough to get away from the door, but like I said, the tunnels were so badly warped. 

“I fell. That’s the only word for it. Not like,” his voice cracks again, “not like Percy and Annabeth fells. It was like missing a step, and then I was there. It was,” he draws in a shaky breath, “I can’t describe it.”

“That’s enough for today,” Percy says, standing. He moves between Nike and Nico, putting his body in the way. “He’s told you enough for today, you can come back tomorrow.”

Nike’s eyes glitter, like ugly beetles. “I’ll decide when I’ve had enough, Percy Jackson.” The way she says his entire name makes him shiver. 

“Sit down, Percy,” Nico says softly. His voice is totally devoid of feeling, and it’s the worst thing Percy has ever heard. “I don’t think I can start again, if I stop.”

Percy turns to look at him, but Nico is looking at the floor, his hair hiding his face. 

“Fine,” Percy says angrily, and he takes a seat on Nico’s bed, less than a foot away. That makes Nico look up at him. Good. 

“What happened next?” Nike asks, practically shoving her microphone into Nico’s face.

“It was this living thing, a network of veins and skin with these, these pustules, bursting everywhere. One exploded, just near me. It was like acid, when it touched me. And this thing crawled out- crawled out from under the skin, it had been living under there.” He shudders again. “I still don’t know what it was. It had too many eyes, but no legs. Just tentacles. I killed it. The blisters, from the acid, they kept spreading.”

Nico rubs hard at his bare arms, like he can still feel them. Carefully, Percy pulls Nico’s hands off his arm and puts them back in his lap. Nico doesn’t even seem to notice.

“I came to the lava river, and I was so thirsty then. I figured I was going to die anyway. That this place would kill me, no matter what I did. I can sense death, but that means I can also sense life. There was no life here. It wasn’t like the Underworld. It’s cold there. This was hot- hot and angry. Death sense is, it’s passive. This was hostile. The death sense was choking me, and I couldn’t breathe. So I drank the lava. I’m still not sure why. It seemed like the right thing. I thought, what’s the worst that could happen? It’s no worse than staying here, dying by inches.”

Percy shivers himself and takes Nico’s hand in his. Nico skin is cold, like he’s already dead. Gently, Percy massages the hand he hold with his thumb, hoping to coax some warmth back into them. Nico still won’t look at him, but he relaxes, just a bit.

Nike looks absolutely gleeful, her face rapt, leaning in. Percy wants to punch her.

Nico draws in another shuddering breath and continues. “The lava made me feel better, but I didn’t know where to go. I thought that I could push back through to life, like I’d fallen through here. I tried to reach for life, or, for a lack of death sense. I couldn’t find it. In the Underworld, I could always feel life, somewhere. It’s like sunshine- not being able to feel it was one of the worst parts. 

“And all I could think that I was walking on this body, on this great, terrible creature that just wanted me dead. And when I realized that I couldn’t just push my way through, I knew that I would have to go back to the Doors. So I walked. I ran into some monsters on the way-”

“Tell me about them,” Nike hisses, and her face is transformed into a terrible glee. “What was your greatest victory?”

Annabeth gets up and moves to sit on the bed just behind Nico, but she doesn’t touch him. 

“There were a lot of fights,” Nico says slowly. “None of them were great. There was a sphinx. It asked me who the president of the United States was in 1927, but she didn’t follow the rules. She attacked when I got it right. The laws don’t apply in Tartarus.” He touches high up on his arm, where a white scar is raised on his skin, three long gashes.

There was a giant. I don’t know which one. I- I had to kill him before he saw me. He didn’t attack me first. I just killed him.” His voice cracks again, and Annabeth rests her hand on his shoulder. 

“I figured out that I needed to be invisible, but I didn’t know how. I didn’t know about the death mist. I just grabbed my death sense. The death was everywhere, and I pulled it into myself.” He shudders all over and Percy gently rubs his hand. Annabeth moves her hand slowly and takes his other hand. 

“It was like wearing a coat, this coat of death, but it was like I was dying. Like constantly being on the verge of death. I looked down at my hands and I didn’t have skin, I was just a skeleton. Like the said about my at Camp Jupiter. It was like I wasn’t even human anymore.” His voice catches, like he’s going to cry, but he keeps talking. Percy nudges closer, so that his side is pressed along Nico’s from thigh to shoulder. Nico shudders and leans into him.

“But they couldn’t see me anymore. I was safe. But I wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to take it off, if I could ever live again. I thought I was stuck. But I had to keep going. They had to know where the Doors were. They needed me.” Percy rests his head on Nico’s, lifting his free hand to gently card through Nico’s hair. He doesn’t know what else he can do.

“I made it all the way back to the door. I could feel life again. It was so wonderful, so freeing. I- I lost control of the death sense. It just stopped- I wasn’t thinking, I just reached towards life, and it worked. And that’s when I saw Otis and Ephialtes. They grabbed me and, and I don’t remember anything after that. Just the dark.” He shudders all over and Percy runs his hands through Nico’s hair again.

“There.” Annabeth spits. “He told you the whole story. Now get out!” 

Percy can’t remember the last time that he heard her sound so angry. It’s like even her hair is bristling, and he loves her so much he can hardly stand it.

Nike is grinning. “Oh, you’re so amazing!” she croons to Nico. She reaches out to touch his face, and Percy has a split second of indecision, where he doesn’t to let Nico go, but he wants to stop her. Annabeth gets there first. She cathe Nike’s wrist in her hand.

“Get. Out.” She says, and Nike actually withdraws.

“Out of respect for his victory, I will do as you say,” she says formally. Then, ruining it, she adds “but seriously, he is just awesome!”

“Yeah,” Percy glances down at Nico as Nike leaves. “Yeah, he’s pretty amazing.”

\--

Nico shakes for almost twenty minutes after Nike leaves. He’s not in shock, he knows where he is, knows that Percy and Annabeth are there, but he doesn’t seem to care. Annabeth carefully runs her hands over his arms, like she’s trying to rub warmth into them, and Percy keeps touching Nico’s hair carefully.

“I’m fine,” Nico keeps saying. Each time, Percy and Annabeth share and exasperated look.

“I know,” Percy says, and doesn’t pull away. Nico has never let them comfort him, never even let them get close before. Percy doesn’t know where all of these stupid protective urges are coming from, and he thinks back that what Annabeth had said. He wouldn’t be acting this way if it was Frank, or Jason. Even Grover wouldn’t have given him this surge of affection/concern with the overwhelming need to make the hurt go away. Nico was different. But then, Nico had always been different.

After a bit, Nico pulls away. His eyes are dry, his face pale. Percy wonders if it would have helped him to cry. 

“I’m fine,” he says again, but this time he moves away from them. They let him. “I’m tired,” he says after long moment. “Can you guys?” He trails off, not looking at either of them.

“Yeah,” Percy says, getting to his feet. “We’ll be over here.” He jerks his thumb at the bed. Nico snorts, but he still doesn't look up.

“As opposed to?” he asks, already climbing under the blankets

Percy shrugs, then remembers that Nico can’t see him. “I don’t know. Just, you know, wanted to mention it.”

“Right.” Nico curls up under the covers and pulls them up over his ears. 

Percy rolls his eyes and hold a hand out to Annabeth. She takes it, and they lie down on their own bed together. 

“I don’t know what to do,” he whispers to her. Annabeth smiles at him. 

“Give it time. You’ll figure it out.”

Percy kisses her. It’s familiar and comforting, and right now he needs that. He kisses her again. 

One of the best things about kissing Annabeth is sometimes, they kiss just for the sake of it, with not other motivations. He can get lost in her kisses, forget that anyone else exists. He wonders if that would help Nico, if Annabeth’s kisses were some kind of magic cure for stress.

The thought should bother him- the thought of his girlfriend kissing someone else. It doesn’t. It makes him feel warm, then hot. He presses closer to Annabeth, rolling on top her her. She laughs into his mouth and bites his lip. “Shh,” she hisses. Percy lifts his head to look at Nico. He’s facing away from them, but there’s no way that he’s asleep. This is probably the last thing he needs to hear. 

Regretfully, Percy rolls off of Annabeth, but pulls her close to his side. They trade quiet, lazy kisses until Percy drifts off to sleep himself.

\--

Strange noises wake Percy up in the middle of the night. It happens slowly, the growing sense that something is wrong, and when he wakes, it feels like he has always been awake.

The noises are coming from Nico, who is thrashing in his bed, whimpering. 

Percy swears and shakes Annabeth’s shoulder until she wakes up.

Annabeth understand the situation instantly. “Nico,” she calls in a whisper. “Nico, wake up!”

It doesn’t do any good. 

Percy clamber out onto the floor, and crouches next to Nico’s bed. He remembers how Nico had calmed at his touch the last time, and he carefully places his hand on Nico’s arm. Nico stills slowly, but doesn’t wake.

Percy looks back at Annabeth, who raises her eyebrows at him. Percy shrugs. He crouches there for several moments, waiting until Nico’s breaths have gone smooth, until he’s still. Then he stands carefully, making sure that Nico doesn’t start panicking again. He doesn’t, so Percy feels ok about going back to Annabeth.

Nico’s breaths are regular, and Percy rests his head on Annabeth’s chest. He falls asleep to Nico’s breath and the steady rhythm of Annabeth’s heart.

\--

A scream splits the air less than an hour later, and Percy throws the covers completely off the bed in his haste. Nico is sitting bolt upright in his bed, shaking.

Percy is by his side instantly, but Nico hardly seems to notice. He’s muttering to himself,shaking his head back and forth, his eyes wide open and scared.

Percy puts a hand on his shoulder and is knocked back so hard he hits the floor with a thud.

“Percy?” Annabeth hisses, coming to his side and helping him sit. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine.” He waves her off. “Let’s worry about Nico.”

He knows how to help Annabeth when she gets like this. He doesn’t know how to help Nico. Percy ends up sitting by the floor next to Nico’s bed, making sure not to get to close. 

He tells Nico things Annabeth already knows, about how he met Grover, about why he likes blue foods. When his voice starts to get tired, Annabeth talks about her last Christmas with her family, about how she’s starting to like her step-brothers, how they look up to her now. 

Halfway through her discussion of helping them with their homework, Nico says “I didn’t know you had brothers.”

“Step-brothers,” Annabeth corrects. “Yeah. They can be kind of cute sometimes.”

“And they, they like you?” Nico asks hesitantly. Annabeth shrugs.

“Well enough. I don’t see them often.”

Nico nods. “It’s nice though, that you have a family.”

Annabeth is quiet for a long moment. “Yes. It is nice.”

Percy takes her hand, and then smiles up at Nico.

Nico reaches out a hand towards Percy. “I hit you.”

Percy grins. “Not that hard.”

“Percy, I’m so-”

“Seriously, dude. I’ve had harder knocks from Tyson when he’s being friendly. Don’t worry about it.”

“I hate this!” Nico bursts out. “It’s so stupid. I can’t even get over a few dreams.”

“Hey, hey, no.” Percy gets to his feet quickly and sits on the side of Nico’s bed. “It’s not your fault. What, you think I don’t have nightmares? That I don’t get scared?”

Nico scoffs. “That’s different. I’m scared all the time lately. Scared of everything.”

Percy reaches for Nico’s hand, and Nico pulls it away before Percy can touch him.

“Nico,” Percy says seriously. “There is nothing wrong with you. I promise.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Nico scoffs.

“No, it’s not!” Percy snaps. “You think I’m not afraid? Do you really, honestly think I’m so much better then you?”

Nico won’t meet his eyes, and Percy slumps.

“I’m not,” he says, feeling sad and heavy. “I’m afraid too. Gods, the things I’m afraid of.” He swallows, because he’s never told this to anyone. “I’m afraid of drowning.”

“What?” Nico’s head jerks up. By his feet, Percy can feel Annabeth stiffen with surprise. “But you’re the son of-”

“I know,” Percy says. He laughs, and it feels cracked. “Believe me, I know. But after Gaia- she sucked me into the earth once, did you know? I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see. I could barely move, and I had to breathe. I was drowning, but it was dirt. I breathed in and it wasn’t air, it was just sand and ice. I thought I was going to die.” He shivers all over. “I thought, this is the end. Son of the sea god, death by drowning.”

He feels Annabeth lean against his leg and he reaches his hand down to card through her hair. 

“And then, when we were in Rome, we got trapped. Me and Piper and Jason. And it was even water that time, but it was killing me. I couldn’t breathe it, and I knew that it wasn’t even dirt this time, it actually was water. All my stupid powers, and I couldn’t save myself from the water. We were all going to die, Piper and Jason too, when it should have been me who could save us. If it hadn’t been for Piper, we would have drowned. Now, I can’t even think about going in the ocean. What if my powers stop working? What if I drown, and go down in history as the worst son of Poseidon ever?”

“Well, you know that’s impossible,” Annabeth says, and her voice is deliberately light. “We already have Phineas.”

Percy laughs, and it feels just as creaky as Nico’s laugh does. “That’s true. Gods, he was the worst.”

He feels a cool touch on his wrist. “Thank you for telling me,” Nico says softly.

Percy smiles at him. “I’m no hero, Nico. Stop building me up. You’re not weak, and you’re not a coward. Well, not unless me and Annabeth are too. In which case, we’re all weak cowards together.”

Annabeth nods, and seriously, she is the best. Nico ducks his head, and his eyes are wet for the first time tonight.

“Whatever,” Nico mutters, but Percy can tell that he’s pleased. “Go back to bed.”

Feeling stupid and daring, Percy leans over to give Nico a quick kiss on the cheek. “Goodnight, Nico.”

He and Annabeth walk back to their bed, but Percy can’t help but look back. Nico’s face is flaming, and he immediately buries it into his pillow. This time, his blankets go all the way over his head.

Feeling warm and happy, Percy falls asleep easily, Annabeth in his arms.  
\--

Nike shows up the next morning, waking all three of them up.

“Hello!” She chirps, infuriatingly cheerful. Percy takes one look at Nico’s red eyes and mussed hair, thinks back to a night of nightmares and scream, and is suddenly furious.

“Get out.” he says, getting to his feet. “Haven’t you done enough?”

Nike pouts at him. “I just want to talk to you!”

“GET OUT!” Percy screams. “Seriously, what is wrong with you? Is it fun, to psychologically torture us? To make us relive the worst things we’ve ever gone though?”

Nike opens her mouth to reply, and Percy does not want to hear her. He picks up his shoe from the floor and throws it at her. It hits her square in the face and bounces back to the floor.

“Good aim!” She grins at him. 

“Get out!”

She raises her hands. “Ok, ok, I can take a hint. I’m going.”

Percy throws his other shoe. It hits the wall where the door is slowly starting to disappear..

He collapses back to the bed, and feels Annabeth coming up behind him, slow and careful.

“Percy?” she asks tentatively. Percy lets himself fall back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. 

“I’m good. I’m ok.”

He hates doing this, hates losing his temper, so intense it scares him. He knows it scares Annabeth. He doesn't even want to look at Nico.

Annabeth leans over him to gently touch his shoulders, guiding his head onto her lap. 

“I’m fine,” Percy repeats, closing his eyes. 

“I know,” Annabeth says soothingly.

Percy squirms, but doesn’t pull away.

“Yeah, it doesn't work when I say it either.” Nico comes up in his left. “I have your shoes.”

“Oh good, now we can leave.”

Nico snorts, and Percy can hear him putting the shoes down next to the bed. Then, to his surprise, he feels the bed dip around Nico’s weight. Nico doesn’t touch him, but Percy can feel the weight of his body, a steady presence by Percy’s legs.

“You’re like a cat, you know.” 

“What?”

“You always curl on at the foot of the bed,” Percy clarifies. “Also you like contact but you hate it when other people touch you. It’s only ok if you initiate it.”

Nico doesn’t respond, so Percy cracks an eye open. Nico is blushing. Percy grins and shuts his eyes again. Annabeth tugs his hair sharply, but he can tell that she’s amused.

\--

By some miracle, Nike leaves them alone for almost three days.

By the end of it, Percy is almost glad to see her. The room is spacious, and she hasn’t forgotten to feed them since the beginning, but seeing nothing but the empty walls and each other has started to drain on all of them.

They’ve all started to snipe at each other, and Percy bears the brunt of it. It’s little things, Annabeth snapping that he smothers her. Percy tells her to stop being so bossy, and that argument lasts the rest of the day, and Percy sleeps on the floor.

Nico and Annabeth end to ignore one another when either of them is feeling cross, but Nico lashes out at Percy. There never seems to be anything specific that sets him off, but Percy thinks it ties back to the conversation they’d had when Annabeth was fighting, about Nico feeling naked around him.

When Nike pushes through the stupid magic door, Percy actually feels relieved. And then he remembers what she’s here for, and the feeling fades.

“Oh, I’m so excited!” She chirps, clapping her hands together. “Do you know how hard it is to get a manticore scheduled for anything? He’s almost as bad as the minotaur. But he was anxious to see you, so we managed to work something out! This is going to be so great!”

“I’ll go.” Percy is standing before he can think better of it, and Nico looks like he will actually punch Percy.

“Percy, I swear if-” 

Percy doesn’t let him finish. He moves in quickly and cuts Nico off with a kiss. It’s kind of a shitty kiss, because Nico goes instantly stiff from shock, but Percy tries. He lets his own mouth go soft, just gently touching his mouth to Nico’s. When he pulls back, Nico is staring at him.

“For luck,” Percy says softly.

“Oh, this is interesting!” Nike says, sounding delighted. “Oh, I almost want to stay, and- but no. The manticore cannot be kept waiting!” She puts her hand on Nico’s arm and they vanish.

Percy turns around to see Annabeth staring at him, eyebrows raised. “I think we need to talk.”

\--

After a confusing few minutes, where Percy desperately tries to explain that he wasn’t trying to cheat on her, and Annabeth calmly tries to reassure him that the thought had not occurred to her, they manage to settle down into a level conversation.

“So, why did you kiss him?” Annabeth asks.

Percy shrugs helplessly. “I don’t know. I wanted to? I’ve never thought of Nico like that before.”

Annabeth frowns at him. “That’s not true. You wouldn’t have kissed him out of the blue if you’d never even thought of it in the past.”

Percy shrugs again, feeling stupid and hating it. “Technically, yes. But, I don’t know, Annabeth. I just, he was going to go face this monster, this terrible monster and I thought, I might never see him again. And it just happened.”

Annabeth sighs. “The sad part is that I actually believe you. That sounds just like you. I guess the more important question is where do you want to go from here?”

Percy puts his head into his hands. “I don’t know. I know that I like it when he laughs. I like making him blush. I don’t like that he goes through nightmares by himself. Beyond that, I have no clue.”

Oh, Percy. You really are hopeless aren’t you?”

Percy gives her a rueful smile. “Is it that obvious?”

“I just know you. Most people are fooled by the big bag son of Poseidon thing. They see you bring up 30-foot waves and think they know everything about you. But me, I know that all you have between your ears is seaweed.”

“Hey!” Percy protests.

Annabeth leans forward and kisses him. For all she’d said about not being worries, her kiss is more possessive than usual, and Percy is suddenly reminded that they haven’t been alone in what feels like weeks. 

He wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her close, groaning when she presses against him.

“We still need to talk,” Annabeth says, but the way she’s moving against him is a strong argument for against her words.

“Fuck talking.” Percy hoists her against him as he stands, her legs going against his waist.

He walks them over to the bed getting very distracted by the way this new position makes them move together.

“Nico could be back any time.” Annabeth says as he tumbles her onto the bed.  
Percy thinks about it, of Nico appearing and seeing them, staring at them with his dark eyes, that flush rising on his cheeks and going down his neck, making his eyes sparkle, making his hair look darker. He groans and thrust down against Annabeth.

She laughs, but it comes out more like a moan as he starts to kiss her neck. “That’s not what I meant, Percy.”

“I don’t care.” He starts to slide his hands up her shirt, running careful fingers over the smooth skin of her stomach. 

“Percy!” Annabeth gasps when his hand slides over her bra, cupping her breast gently.

“Yes?” He grins at her neck. Annabeth growls and fists her hand in his hair, pulling him back up to her mouth. They kiss, open mouthed and fierce. He can feel her other hand under his shirt, running down his back. It makes him shiver.

“What if Nico was here?” Annabeth asks. “What do you think he would do?”

Percy kisses her again, trying to get her to shut up. He thrusts his tongue into her mouth, sucking at her lower lip until she stops trying to talk. Still he has to break off to breathe, and she picks it up again.

“Would you want him to join?”

“Stop talking,” Percy growls, biting her neck.

“No.” Annabeth hisses, twisting her hips up into his. Percy grips the bottom of her shirt and pulls it off, leaving her in her sports bra and torn jeans. “Would you want him to kiss you?” she asks, raking her fingernails down his back lightly. 

In retaliation, Percy starts kissing down her chest, towards the curve of her breasts. She’s panting now, and one hand is still wrapped in his hair.

"Or would you want him to kiss me?"

Percy can't help the groan that escapes him, and his hand slips under the lower band of Annabeth's bra. She arches against him with a cry. 

"You say that you don't know what you want," she pants. "But I think that you do. You want him to join us."

"Shut up," Percy says, rising to kiss her, mauling her mouth.

"You want to kiss him like this," she says, and bites down on his lower lip. "You want to touch him like you touch me." She shimmies beneath him, and Percy pulls his hand out her bra to bring both hands to her hips, trying to still her. 

"You want to see him kiss me. You want to see me rub against him just like this." She leans up and presses against him from chest to knees, and twists. Her knee goes between his legs, the perfect amount of friction. 

"Please stop," he begs, dropping his head down to the nape of her head and struggling just to breathe.

"You want to make him scream," Annanbeth says, directly into his ear. He shudders all over. He can't remember the last time that he was this turned on. He fumbles with the button of her jeans, reaching in to feel her panties, already soaked. 

Annabeth arches against him and cries out, panting too hard to speak. Good. He wants to keep it that way. 

"You want that, don't you?" she asks after a moment, and her knee is rubbing against his cock through his jeans. Percy throws his head back and shakes his head.

Annabeth laughs breathlessly. He can feel her fumbling at the button of his jeans.

"Admit it. You want Nico right here. Not instead. With."

"Annabeth," Percy pants, and her fingers slip inside his boxers. Percy thinks he sees actual stars.

"You want him," she says with a twist of her wrist. Percy is panting and shaking, and totally on the edge. He presses a second finger into her and is gratified when Annabeth makes a choked noise.

"Admit it," she hisses into his ear, and jerks him once, hard.

"Yes!" Percy cries out, and comes all over her hand.

He practically collapses against her, the sound of his own breath heavy in his ears.

After a moment, he realizes that Annabeth is squirming beneath him. He twists his fingers viciously, and she comes with a shout. 

Percy has about five seconds to bask in the afterglow before he realizes that Nico is going to be getting back any second now, possibly injured and definitely upset.

"Oh shit!" He sits up quickly, pulling his fingers out of Annabeth's pants.

"Oh, that's nice," Annabeth says, but there's not bite to it. Idly, she wipes her hand on the sheets. 

“Nico will be back,” Percy hisses.

Annabeth leers at him. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“Annabeth!” Percy tosses her shirt at her. 

Annabeth pulls it on. “You might want to change your pants.”

Percy glances down and swears. He’s lucky they had had packed two pairs of jeans, and that was mostly because he’d been worried that his would get torn. This is worse.

Annabeth watches him change. “Seriously Percy, we should talk.”

“You seemed plenty talkative.” 

Annabeth scowls at him. “No, I mean. Now is seriously the worst time to start a relationship.”

Percy drops his jeans. “Who said anything about a relationship?”

Annabeth gives him a flat look, and Percy looks away, turning back to his jeans.

“My point is, we’re trapped right now. If we start now, it will always be unsteady. There will always be the question of whether it was forced on us. Percy,” she sighs. “You shouldn’t have kissed him.”

“I wasn’t thinking,” Percy replies, pulling on his jeans and fastening them.

“I know. But things just got a lot more complicated, and I don’t think we’re ready for that.”

“You seemed fine with it,” Percy snaps, and Annabeth blushes.

“I probably should not have broached the topic in that manner,” she admits. “I apologize.”

Percy sighs. “It’s ok. Do you think the room smells like, you know.”

“Sex?” 

Percy nods, and Annabeth laughs. “If you can’t say it, you shouldn’t be doing it.”

“Yes, thank you.” Percy rolls his eyes. “Does it?”

“I don’t think that Nico will have a point of comparison to worry about. Now come here and let me fix your hair.”

Percy goes and sits beside her on the bed, and lets her fix his hair.

\--

Nico appears at the foot of their bed less than ten minutes, swaying on his feet. His left arm is bleeding from a gash on the shoulder, and it looks like there are teeth marks on his right shin. 

“I hate that guy,” he says, and collapses sideways onto the bed.

“Oh, fuck.” Percy jumps to his feet and runs to the mini-fridge full of little mini-bar bottles of nectar. 

“Manticore’s are poisonous.” Annabeth says, tugging Nico’s pant leg higher up on his leg. 

“Of course they are,” Percy snaps. He drips a few drops of nectar onto the bloody bite, and a few more onto slice on Nico’s arm. It sizzles where it hits, and green steam hisses up then disappears. Annabeth breathes a sigh of relief.

“That was the poison.We’re luck that she gave us so much nectar.”

“Yes, we’re very fortunate.” Percy searches for any bandages, then takes a page out of Nico’s book and starts shredding his pillow case.

Annabeth goes to the pitcher of water on counter and soaks one of the strips of fabric in it. While Percy carefully wraps up Nico’s arm and leg, she lays the cool fabric on Nico’s forehead.

“He should be fine. Nike doesn’t want any of us to die.”

“No, we’re much better as her prize fighters,” Percy spits, rage flaring. His hands on Nico’s arm are gentle though, and he carefully ties off the bandage. No blood seeps through, which is a good sign. 

Without speaking, he goes and wets another strip, carefully cleaning off the blood that dripped down Nico’s arm.

“We should let him sleep,” Annabeth says quietly.

“I feel like all we do here is sleep.”

Annabeth shrugs. “It’s all there is to do. Besides, extended captivity is mentally taxing, which causes-”

“I get it. Being stuck makes us tired, and you can back it up with science.”

“He’s already on this bed. It doesn’t make any sense to move him.” Annabeth brushes a piece of Nico’s hair off of his forehead.

“But we just, this bed. No, we have to move him.”

Annabeth raises her eyebrows at him. “He’s unconscious. I doubt he cares.”

“I care!” Percy snaps, and lifts Nico up under the knees and shoulders. “Pull back the sheets.”

Annabeth sighs. “Would you ever care for me this way?” she asks, mockingly wistful.

“You punch me in your sleep when I pick you up like this,” Percy replies, carefully settling Nico onto the bed. “Last time you broke my nose.”

“I said I was sorry.” Annabeth pulls the blankets up over Nico’s head. 

“Yes, and you did it again the next time. Which is why I don’t carry you to bed when you’re hurt.”

Annabeth makes a disgruntled noise and drops down onto their bed. Percy sits next to her, still looking at Nico.

“This doesn’t seem fair.”

“What doesn’t?” 

“That Nico got such a strong monster. I mean, it took most of the Hunters just to scare him away. It took Mr.D to kill him. And now Nico had to face him alone? That’s not fair.”

Annabeth nudges him with her shoulder. “The minotaur isn’t exactly a pushover.”

Percy shrugs, and Annabeth looks down, picking at the bedspread. “If you look at it that way, I got off the easiest. Cyclops are, it wasn’t even hard. There was only one of them, and he was pretty stupid. I almost felt bad for killed him.”

“Annabeth Chase, feeling bad for a cyclops,” Percy teases. 

“Shut up. Meeting Tyson, and Ella, it got me thinking. Not all monsters are monsters.”

“Deep,” Percy says sardonically, and Annabeth punches him. 

They’re quiet for a long moment, just sitting, leaning against one another rests his head on Annabeth’s. 

“What do you think she has planned next?” he asks.

“I’m sure she’ll tell us soon enough,” Annabeth replies. “Don’t think about it. Come on, you owe me some cuddling time.”

“Gods, what a hardship,” Percy teases, climbing under the sheets and holding them up for her to climb in beside him. Annabeth uses more elbows than Percy thinks is necessary, but finally she settles against him.

\--

It shouldn’t be a surprise when Nico wakes them with nightmares, but Percy is not expecting it. This time, he doesn’t have to wake Annabeth, she’s already sitting up beside him. 

Nico is twisting in the bed, face beaded with sweat and face screwed up with fear. Percy goes and sits beside him on the bed, putting a hand on Nico’s shoulder. Nico stills under his touch, like he always does.

Without thinking about anything but making Nico rest enough to get some proper healing, Percy stretches out on his side, still on top of the blankets. Not wanting to scare Nico, Percy pulls in his limbs, leaving only one hand on Nico’s hip.

He lists his head enough to catch Annabeth’s eye, and motions her over. She shakes her head. Percy gestures more forcefully, and she rolls her eyes, throwing off her blankets almost angrily and padding over to them. Slowly, carefully, she settles in on Nico’s other side, resting one hand on his shoulder. Shifting in his sleep, Nico makes a pleased noise.

Percy smiles down at him and brushes a piece of Nico’s hair off of his forehead. Nico moves, just slightly pushing into the hand and Percy feels an unbearable rush of affection for him

“I think I know what I want now,” he whispers to Annabeth.

Annabeth rolls her eyes. “Oh, you don’t say.” She puts her head down, almost touching Nico’s shoulder. Her curls are fanned around her head, almost touching Nico’s dark hair, and it’s something Percy hopes he gets to see more often. He wants to keep them so badly it hurts. 

\--

Percy drifts awake slowly, feeling warm and peaceful. He opens his eyes slowly, and finds himself staring directly into Nico’s eyes.

“Did you know you drool when you sleep?” Nico asks quietly.

Annabeth, unseen, snorts. Percy makes a face.

“Apparently, it’s my curse,” he replies. He smiles, hoping to get Nico to smile back, but Nico’s face goes closed off.

“Want to explain why you’re in my bed?” Nico asks, and this time his voice is cold.

“I had a bad dream?” Percy tries, and feels someone pinch his arm. He yelps, and glances down, then blushes. He’s tangled himself up around Nico sometime in the night. One arm is wrapped around Nico’s waist, he has one leg thrown over Nico’s knees, and Annabeth’s hand clutches in his. Nico is lying on Annabeth’s other arm, and Percy can feel more feet than is stricly possible for just Nico to posses be his legs.

“Oh. Ah. Sorry.” He pulls his leg back, but leaves his arm where it is, wanting to see what Nico will do.

Nico glares at him, and throws Percy’s arm off of him. “Do you think this is funny?”

“Um, which part?” Percy asks. In hindsight, he can understand why that was the wrong answer.

“Get out,” Nico says, and his voice is like ice. Percy scrambles out, over to his own bed.

“Look, Nico,” he says, holding his hands out placatingly. 

“Shut up. Don’t talk to me.”

Percy opens his mouth to totally ignore that when Annabeth comes up behind him and puts her hand over his mouth. “Do what he says.”

“But-” 

“Percy, shut up,” Annabeth says with feeling.

Feeling grumpy and put upon, Percy subsides. 

For the next hour, Nico stares silently at the wall, and every time Percy opens his mouth to say something, Annabeth elbows him in the side. By the time that Nike shows up, Percy is pretty sure that he has a growing bruise over his ribs. 

He glowers at Nike when she shows up, but he’s feeling so angry that he doesn’t even protest when she starts in on Nico with her usual post-fight interrogation.

Nico answers her in terse, one word answers, and after awhile Nike seems to get bored. 

“Oh, I have such a great thing planned for next time! I even made posters! All three of you fighting together, it will be wonderful!”

Percy and Nico exchange looks, then quickly look away. Percy crosses his arms over his chest.

Nike waits with an air of expectation until Annabeth, her teeth gritted tigtly together, says “That’s great. Thank you.”

Nike beams. “You’re welcome! I will be back for you in a few days! Oh, this is going to be so great.”

The door has barely closed behind her when Annabeth stands. “This is a great opportunity. The biggest problem with an esacpe has either been that we’re trapped in here, or that we’ve been seperated. With all three of us out in the open, we have a better chance of making it out.”

“Yeah, we just have to fight our way through several hundred monster spectators and a crazy goddess who can magically teleport us back here,” Percy replies. 

“Well, unless you want to stay here forever,” Annabeth retorts.

“I don’t want to die either!”

Annabeth turns her back on him. “Nico, do you think you could shadow-travel us out of the arena?”

Nico bites his lip. “I’m not sure. It it has the same shields as this room, then no. But I’ll try. Another problem is that we don’t even know where we are. We could be back in Rome for all I know. If that’s the case, I won’t be able to get us back to either Camp.”

“Great,” Percy snaps. He feels grumpy and trapped and he just wants to know what’s going through Nico’s mind. That’s the only excuse he has for when he says “What use are you then?”

Annabeth rounds on him. “Percy!”

Nico goes pale. He gets to his feet in a rush. “As far as I can tell, I’m the only one who has a chance of getting us out of here. You’re not bringing anything to the table, water boy. What use are you?”

Percy jumps to his feet as well. “What’s your problem?” He steps forward, close into Nico’s space. He almost falters when he remembers how their last argument ended, with Nico’s lips pressed against his. It makes him want to push harder.

“You are!” Nico shouts, and pushes him back. Percy falls back onto the bed and stared up at him. Nico is furious, face flushes and muscles tense.

“What?” Percy asks.

“Do you think this is funny?” Nico hisses. “Is this some kind of joke to you? My feelings?” He spits the word like it’s something dirty, and it feels like there’s a cold lump forming in Percy’s stomach.

“No, that’s not-” Percy’s anger is gone, and he just feels confused.

“It must be hilarious, watching me fall all over myself for you. The stupid son of Hades who thinks he might actually have a chance.”

“Nico-”

“Shut up, Percy!” Nico shouts, and Percy falls quiet, shocked into silence. “I’m sick of you playing with me like this, like it’s some kind of joke to you. You have a fucking girlfriend, and then you both go climb into my bed like it’s some kind of dare? I’m just surprised that you managed to talk Annabeth into it.” He turns to glower at Annabeth. “I would have expected from you, at least.”

Percy is moving through shock to hurt. “Is that really what you think of me?” he asks quietly. “That I was, what? Laughing at you?”

Nico shakes his head, hair falling into his eyes. “I don’t know what to think, Percy. But I don’t want to talk to you right now. I don’t know if I’ll ever want to talk to you. Just leave me alone.”

“Nico,” Percy says, pleadingly. Nico shakes his head and climbs into his bed, pulling the sheets all the way over his head. There is no way he’s sleeping in there, but Annabeth puts a hand on Percy’s chest when he makes a move towards it, and shakes her head. 

\--

 

The next two days are one of the most miserable and awkward of Percy’s entire life. He spends most of it having whispered arguments with Annabeth and sulking in the bed. Nico spends the entire time under the covers of his bed and, to Percy’s knowledge, only emerges for food when Percy is asleep. 

On the second night, it’s Percy’s turn to wake up with a scream choked is his throat. He claws his way out of the sheets and swings his feet onto the floor. Annabeth is still asleep, and he breathes carefully, trying to calm down, to not wake her. 

“Percy?” a voice hisses, and Percy looks up to see Nico with a bite out of food halfway to his mouth. 

Percy tries to answer, but nothing comes out. He drops his head into his hands and breathes slowly.

“Are you ok?” Nico whispers, coming over and crouching beside him. Percy shakes his head no, his hands clenching and unclenching.

“It’s, um, it’s ok?” Nico tries. “You’re safe. Well, probably not. Nike will probably be back sometime tomorrow and who knows what we’ll be facing then, but you’ll be with me and Annabeth and we’ll have your back, so it’s not so bad-”

“Nico?” Percy gasps, and the thud of his heart is actually starting to slow under Nico’s inredible rambling. “Please stop talking.”

“Sorry,” Nico says, and falls quiet. Percy wants to shift, to lean into Nico, close the gap between them, but he knows better than to try. So he draws comfort from Annabeth’s warmth next to him, and the sound of Nico’s breathing. He tries to match the rhythym of their breaths.

“Can I help?”

“Shhhhh,” Percy says, and he feels a smile tugging at his lips.

“Sorry,” Nico whispers, and Percy actually grins. 

After a few minutes, he sits up straight. “I’m good now. It’s fine.”

“You sure?”

Percy gives Nico a flat look. “What would you do if I wasn’t?” Nico looks uncomfortable, and he shrugs. 

Percy pats Nico on the shoulder. “I’m good now. Thank you. Seriously, go to bed. And please stop avoiding me, it’s awkward for everyone.”

Nico ducks his head. “Yeah, whatever.”

Percy sighs and swings his feet back into the bed. That’s probably as good as he’s going to get. 

“Goodnight, Nico.”

“Goodnight.”

\--

To Percy’s intense relief, Nico actually gets out of bed and interact with them the next day. Annabeth gives both of them curious looks, but she doesn’t ask.

“So,” Percy says into the awkward. “Tell me about mythomagic.”

Nico gives him a startled look. “You don’t want to hear about-”

“Yeah, I really do. It used to important to you.”

“Well, you start with three cards, and each turn you draw one card. There are two phases to each turn- play and attack. At the play phase, you put down a card. If you have enough power, you can summon a monster.”

Nico walks them through the basic play structure of the game, while Annabeth and Percy ask questions. Even without cards to show them, Nico is a pretty good teacher. 

“It sounds like you still really love the game. You should pick it up again.”

Nico shakes his head. “It’s for babies.”

Annabeth snorts. “Percy spent all of his last Christmas break playing Mario Kart.”

“And I was awesome at it,” Perc says proudly. “But seriously, Nico, you’ve more than earned the right to do what you want. Especially if it’s something that makes you happy. Annabeth and I would play with you.”

“Frank plays,” Nico says thoughtfully. “I bet I could get him to play with me.”

“That’s the spirit!” Percy says enthusiastically. “Now, could you explain how equipping works again?”

Nico is in the middle of explaining how the specialty cards, like the Gods, work when Nike comes through her door.

“Are you ready to fight?” she asks.

“No,” all three of them chorus together. Nike frowns. “Too bad. Stand up.”

Percy is up first, and he offers and hand to Nico. Nico ignores him. Shrugging, Percy turns to offer a hand to Annabeth, who takes it and stands gracefully. 

“Look, Nico,” Percy says, turning to Nico quickly. He can see Nike approaching, know that they’re about ten seconds away from getting sucked into the stupid arena to their potential deaths. “I promise you, I was never trying to make fun of you.” Nico stiffens, but Percy pushes through. “I never thought-”

The walls disappear around them, and Percy’s words are lost in the roar of the crowd.

“Now, Nico!” Annabeth calls, raising the sword she suddenly holds into a defensive position. Percy draws Riptide, while Nico quickly sheaths his sword. Percy can feel Nico’s cold hand on his arm, but he keeps his eyes fixed on the arena.

“It’s not working!” Nico says desperately. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Percy turns to look at him, and Nico looks anguished. It hits Percy that he may have done more damage than he thought with his comments about Nico being useless.

Percy throws Riptide to the side and grabs Nico by both shoulders. “This is not your fault. We figured this would happen, and no one blames you. You are not useless, and we could not have made it through this without you. We need you. Do you understand me?”

Nico is quiet, and Percy gives him a little shake. “Do you understand me?”

“Yes, fine, alright.” Nico says, and Percy lets him go.

“Percy, pick up your stupid sword!” Annabeth yells. Percy looks up to see no less than monsters bearing down on them.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he says angrily, and lunches for where Riptide is lying, three feet away.

Nico draws his sword again, and the three of them stand back to back.

“Hello, dearies,” the closest monster croons. “Free sample?”

“Oh, no.” Percy says, with feeling. “Not you again.”

Stheno leers at him over a plate of samples.

“Friends of yours?” Annabeth asks, slicing her blade through a chimera, reducing it to dust.

“How do you still have that plate?” Percy shouts at her. “I killed you!”

Stheno just cackles, and lunges at him. Percy ducks under her claws and stabs Riptide though her stomach. She disappears in cloud of dust. Percy returns to the formation he had with Nico and Annabeth.

“Nico,” Percy says as he fends off an Empousa, thankfully not Kelli. “What I was trying to say earlier is that I never thought your feelings were a joke.”

“Really, Percy? Now?” Annabeth snaps. “Duck!” She swings her sword over his head as he does so and takes out another Empousa.

“It’s the only time he’ll listen,” Percy replies. 

“I’m not listening now!” Nico blocks the fangs of a basilisk with his sword.

“Liar!” Percy replies. “Careful, they spit-” The basilisk spits a stream of fire at Nico, who just barely dodges in time. Percy takes it’s head off. “Anyway. I just felt like doing those things, ok?”

“What, are you curious or something?” Nico demands angrily, hitting a chimera with more force than Percy thinks is strictly necessary.

“Do you hear screeching?” Annabeth asks, and they all look up to see three harpies hovering above them.

“Duck!” Percy calls, as the swoop down as one. “And no. Well, yes. But not about, you know guys.”

“Leave me out of it!” Nico snaps, and his sword crosses in front of Percy’s eyes. Percy thinks that Nico was threatening him before he sees the Emousa backing up, clutching the stump where her hand was.

“Nico, what Percy is failing to say is that he likes you.”

“Annabeth! I got this!” Percy snaps, ducking another attack by the harpies. 

“You really don’t.” Annabeth replies, pushing Nico’s shoulder down and stabbing the chimera that was lunging for him.

“What do you mean you like me?” Nico demands, and the stupid idiot actually stops fighting for a second. Percy grabs him and pulls him to the side just as a basilisk shoots more fire at where Nico was standing. Annabeth beheads it.

“I never said that!” Percy protests, and when Nico’s face falls, he adds, “but it is, technically, true.”

“Look out!” Nico yells, and he tackles Percy out of the way of another harpy. Nico swipes out with his sword and manages to catch it in the wing. It falls the the ground with a screech.

“Percy means he wants to smooch you!” Annabeth says wickedly. 

“Annabeth!” Percy says, going red.

“Really?” Nico asks, finishing off the Harpy.

“Duck!” Annabeth yells.

And then all of the harpies above them burst into flames.

Percy looks around wildly, but they’ve killed all of the basilisks. 

Then the stands go up in fire as well, and the triumphant roars of the monsters is replaced by screams.

“Attention monsters!” comes Leo’s unmistakable voice, amplified times 100. “The cavalry has arrived. Please vacate if you do not wish to become barbeque.” And then Nike’s emperor box explodes in a beautiful fireball.

The sight of the Argo II sailing on over the arena, blowing out jets of flame from Festus’ head may be the most beautiful thing that Percy has ever seen. He jumps up and whoops, punching the air.

Annabeth has to drag him out of the way so that Nico can get the last empousa that has nearly gotten Percy through the chest.

“Hey, guys!” Jason is leaning over the side of the ship, beaming. “Need a lift?”

“Took you long enough!” Percy calls back as Jason jumps the side of the ship and floats down to them. Between the four of them, they manage to clear away the rest of the monsters in the arena is still shooting beautiful jets of flame at the stands where the monsters had been.

From the side of the ship, Piper drops down a rope ladder, and Jason nudges them towards it. 

Percy makes Nico go first, staying to watch Annabeth with some concern. With her bad leg, there’s no way that she’ll be able to climb the ladder.

“I got her,” Jason says, correctly interpreting Percy’s concern. Jason wraps one arm around her waist, and she puts hers around his shoulder. It’s all very superman, but Percy thinks that Jason cocking his free hand on his hip is a bit much.

Percy waits until they’ve both made it safely aboard before he climbs up himself. 

“Let’s blow this popsicle stand!” Leo shouts, voice still magnified. He shoots another het of flame at the place where Nike was sitting, then turns the ship around.

As soon as the arena is out of sight, Percy, Nico and Annabeth are swarmed by their friends, everyone pressing around them. Frank picks Percy clean off of his feet in a bear hug, and Piper is leaking tears and pretending not to as she hugs Annabeth. Out of the corner of his eye, Percy sees Hazel kissing Nico’s face as he tries to squirm away.

After about five seconds, it starts to feel a little overwhelming, and Percy has to squirm away himself. Without thinking, he graviates towards Nico and Annabeth, the only two people who don’t feel alarming. To his surprise, he reaches them faster than he would have expected, and realizes that they had both been moving towards him, and to each other.

Piper is the first one to pick up on what’s going on, and she gets the others to give them a little space. Annabeth gives her a small smile, which Piper returns.

“How did you find us?” Percy asks. “There was no way to get a message through.”

Frank holds up a brightly colored poster. It looks like an old-fashioned circus poster and reads “Come see the Survivors of Tartarus battle terrifying monsters! One time only!” Along with a date and place.

Annabeth puts her head in her hands and groans. “I can’t believe we were held captive by someone so stupid!” 

Percy takes the poster from his hands. “We were in Oregon? That’s a weird place.”

Frank shrugged. “The arena kinda stood out. It wasn’t hard to find.”

“You were right by the Nike headquarters,” Piper adds cheerfully. 

“Oh my gods,” Annabeth groans into her hands, still not looking up.

“How long were we gone?” Nico asks. 

Everyone falls quiet, exchanging looks. 

“A little over a month,” Hazel says carefully. 

“We didn’t even know you were actually missing for almost a week,” Frank says miserably. “We thought it was just taking you awhile to get back from the sea monster. And then we thought maybe you’d been injured and were laying low.”

“Jason thought you three had run away for an extended group vacation,” Piper says, and Jason scuffs one foot on the deck.

Hazel steps up to them and looks them up and down. “You’re ok though?” 

The three of them exchange looks. “Yeah,” Percy says after a moment.

“We’re fine,” Nico adds.

“Just peachy,” Annabeth says, and the three of them laugh. None of the others do, and they stop after a moment.

“Hey guys!” Leo comes running up to the, soot smudges on his forehead, sleeves charred up to the shoulders. “Oh man, it is so good to see you!” He moves like he’s about to hug them, and Jason puts a hand on his shoulder, holding him back.

For a moment, Percy feels alienated, separate. He, Nico and Annabeth are pressed together, almost back to back, and the others form a half circle around them, standing almost a foot away.

There’s an awkward silence. 

“It’s great to see you too!” Percy says, a beat too late. He steps forward after another beat, holding his arms out for the hug that Leo had been going for. It is almost unbearably awkward. Everyone is silent. Leo steps forward, and he looks like he’d really rather not be doing his, but he wraps his arms around Percy in what is probably the worst hug ever. No one is saying anything.

Percy and Leo both take a step back at the same time.

“Yep, we’re back!” Percy says, too loud.

“Wow, so glad you’re back, man!” Leo says at the same time.

The moment breaks, and everyone laughs. It’s better, without the pressure of the silence, without the weight of their stares, but their laughter is too loud and Percy wants to be somewhere else.

“Here, let me show you to your room,” Hazel says, stepping forward. “I mean, i guess you’ve been here before, but Leo did some work on since Rome. Before we had to come get you, I mean. Nico, we added a room for you. It’s right next to mine.” 

Hazel leads them down the hallway, and everyone lets them pass, moving aside for them without speaking. 

“You are ok though, aren’t you?” Hazel asks when they’re out of earshot of the rest. Nico moves to her side and takes her hand. He’s casually affectionate with her, in a way that he is with no one else.

For one crazy moment, Percy wants to grab Nico and pull him back. He resist the urge. 

Percy’s is the first room they reach, and there’s another awkward moment, where he doesn’t know if Annabeth will join him or no. But Hazel is watching, and she makes really spectacular scandalized faces. Usually it’s funny, but tonight- no. Annabeth seems to agree, because she just kisses him on the cheek and steps away.

When Percy closes the door to his room, it seems too big and too quiet. Each footstep echoes on the wood floor, and he hasn’t heard anything but carpet in a month.

He lies down on the bed, and the sheets are cold. The room is so quiet. Leo knew what he was doing, he had done an excellent job soundproofing the rooms, but the only breath Percy can hear is his own, and it terrifies him.

Percy pushes the feeling away and squeezes his eyes shut, trying sleep. 

Finally, he grabs one of the extra pillows and wraps his arms around it. It’s weird not to have Annabeth’s now familiar weight in his arms, and he knows that she’s just down the hall, but he can’t make himself believe it. 

Nico breathes softly when awake, but he snuffles a little when he sleeps, and Percy can’t think, his mind is going around in circles. He takes the pillow that is not a stand-in for Annabeth and covers his head with it. He hopes that it will muffle the memory of sound, block out all the things he’s not hearing.

After what feels like ages, he falls asleep, still feeling on the verge of panic.

It’s restless from the start, and this time he doesn’t dream of Tartarus. He sees Nico getting roasted by the basilisk, Annabeth being gutted by the chimera, while Percy stands there, unable to help.

He dreams that Nike has taken them both again, but left him behind. 

The third time he awakes, he throws off his blanket, carefully puts the Annabeth-pillow at the head of the bed, and gets up. 

The hall of the sleeping quarters is at least louder than his room, and he can faintly hear the rest of the crew laughing on the deck.

Annabeth’s door isn’t too far from his, and he just slips in. 

Annabeth is sitting up in her bed, absently playing with her own pillow. She doesn’t look surprised to see him, just holds up a corner of her blankets. He settles in behind her, and pulls her close to his chest.

It’s weird- they’re safe now, free from Nike’s hotel-prison. But he feels more anxious now than he did half the time they were trapped.

It’s still too quiet, too wrong. Percy ducks his head and presses it between Annabeth’s shoulder blades. 

He can’t get comfortable. 

“Annabeth,” he says after a moment. He stops, not sure how to communicate the sense of wrongness he feels. 

Annabeth rolls over to face him, and her face is sweet and open. She puts her hand on his cheek.

“Do you know what you want, Percy?” she asks softly.

Percy smiles at her, kisses her palm. “Yeah.” He leans in to kiss her lips as well, then pulls back. “Let’s go get Nico.”

 

The End

**Author's Note:**

> For sneak peaks, questions and random tidbits, check out my tumblr by the same name!


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